Stuff I Grew Up With/Video Game Corner: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996)

I think it's clear by this point that my favorite types of video games are platformers and shooters, either first- or third-person. I am also partial to a few racers here and there, as well as some fighters and action-adventure games, but, for the most part, those are the genres I tend to stick to. Thus, one that I've never been that big on is the RPG, and that includes big-name franchises like Final Fantasy, Ultima, or even, if you want to count this, The Legend of Zelda (to this day, I have never played a single one of those games). The reason is simple: the genre's basic gameplay mechanics, including the battling, the leveling up of the different characters' stats, the journeying across vast lands without much happening sometimes, and exploring towns and stocking up on items, did not appeal to a hyper, impatient kid with a short attention span. (I guess if you consider Pokemon a kind of RPG, then that was the one I got heavily into when it first became popular.) Make no mistake, I have played a small handful of RPGs over the years, but that's typically because they involved some sort of IP that I was either a fan of or, at the very least, was familiar with. For example, I have played the first couple of Kingdom Hearts games, as well as one for the GameBoy Advance, but I only went to them because I was curious to see how all those Disney characters would work in that kind of format. And I've also played the PlayStation 2 game, Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask, because I'm a huge fan of that series. But, for the most part, RPGs just aren't my thing. In fact, when this game was first released, I had no clue what "RPG" meant; all I knew was that it was a cool-looking new Mario game coming and I wanted to play it.

I first learned of Super Mario RPG when it was featured on the cover of the first issue of Nintendo Power magazine that I got in late 1995, and by the time it came out the following May, I was seeing commercials. I remember this one commercial in particular, with an old man telling his grandchildren, "All was peaceful in the Mushroom Kingdom, 'til Smithy the sword shattered the Star Road! Wow!", as you were bombarded with quick clips from the game, including what looked like a giant snowman appearing in the midst of a battle, as well as a giant lightning bolt, a giant wind-up Koopa stomping across a three-headed Piranha Plant, Mario hopping on a Wiggler, and him running up a hill while dodging barrels. Naturally, I just had to have this, and I can still remember, when my birthday came around that June, my mom took me to Toys 'R Us and bought me a copy of the game (I still have it to this day). And I can also remember how, when I got home and put it in my Super NES, it looked, sounded, and played like no Mario game I had ever seen before. When it first starts up and you're going through Bowser's Keep, I immediately jumped at the first enemy I came across, expecting to stomp him, as per usual, only to be very confused when I got pulled into a battle screen. This confusion continued on after the initial battle with Bowser and the start of the real story, as I was used to a series of levels of constant platforming action, rather than having to manually journey across the land, with nothing happening in some areas. And, again, I also didn't understand the concept of having to level up by gaining Experience Points, so I very quickly got Game Over, specifically on the first boss battle. It was pretty frustrating, as I'd rarely ever come across a game that I simply could not figure out how to play, save for when I blindly rented them. But, by actually reading the instruction manual, and feeling the game out, I slowly but surely began to understand what I was supposed to do. Things especially turned around when I got a copy of the Nintendo Power Player's Guide, which made it even clearer, and it soon became a game that I really enjoyed playing.

It was often still really hard and frustrating, not just because of the actual gameplay but also because the game's design and control functions made the overworld and platforming moments really difficult and tough on the fingers. The latter is still a complaint that I have to this day, as are how some of challenges and quests are really hard to nail down, and I've always been kind of mixed on how the game looks, particularly in regards to the character designs, and I don't think it's aged well in that regard. But, all that said, this is still a really cool, fun, and, at the time, unique game for the Mario franchise. It still stands out due to its art style, original characters, and music score, with no other game in the series equaling it in that regard. I like the variety of lands and locales you journey through, the different types of residents you meet, and all of the situations and pickles you find yourself in, some of which are quite imaginative. I also like how it starts out with the familiar scenario of Bowser kidnapping Princess Toadstool and Mario having to save her, only for something far more serious to happen, and, eventually, the three of them and two original characters have to pull together in order to defeat this infinitely bigger threat. But, most of all, this was the first Mario game that, to me, felt like you were on a truly epic adventure, with much higher stakes than usual, and thus, made the moment when you finally completed it all the more satisfying.

(And yeah, buckle in, because this review is going to be an epic adventure in and of itself. And I apologize in advance if I repeat some points or forget to mention others.) 

The game begins with Princess Toadstool getting abducted by Bowser in a Koopa Clown Car outside of Mario's house, and Mario having to rush to the Koopa King's castle to save her. During a confrontation atop some chandeliers, Mario manages to send Bowser plummeting down to the floor below. But before he can rescue the princess, the castle begins shaking violently, as a gigantic sword descends from the sky and impales itself into the castle's center. Mario is sent flying from the impact and lands back at his house. There, he meets Toad, who has come to fetch the princess and escort her back to the Mushroom Kingdom. Upon learning what happened, Toad sends Mario back to the castle to rescue her, but before he can enter, the giant sword proves to be sentient and tells him that the castle now belongs to "the Smithy Gang." He then destroys the bridge, forcing Mario to retreat. Going back home and telling Toad of this, the two of them journey to the Mushroom Kingdom to inform the Chancellor. When they do, the Chancellor, again, charges Mario with finding and rescuing the princess. He then meets a fluffy guy named Mallow, who claims to be a tadpole (he looks like nothing of the sort), and the kingdom itself is soon attacked by members of the Smithy Gang. Mario and Mallow manage to defeat them, and discover a star-like object called a Star Piece. As they continue traveling, they meet and team up with Geno, a star spirit who has possessed a child's wooden doll. He explains that, when the Smithy Gang arrived, they destroyed the Star Road, shattering it into seven Star Pieces, each of which are now either guarded by or sought by Smithy's minions. Until the heroes defeat Smithy himself and repair the road, no more wishes will come true. Along the way, they also team up with Bowser, who's determined to get his castle back, and even Princess Toadstool herself, after they rescue her from a weirdo who's intent on marrying her. And, before getting to the final showdown, they learn of Mallow's true origins, which turn out to be celestial in nature.

I love that, by all accounts, Super Mario RPG came about simply because Shigeru Miyamoto got the idea of putting Mario in this type of a game, as well as because Square wanted to do an RPG with more international appeal than their previous ones. Since I haven't played that many RPGs myself, I didn't realize that combining the elements of that genre with the aesthetics of a Mario game was something of a tricky job. They not only had to incorporate actions such as jumping and running, as well as the expected platforming, outside of the battle scenes, but also realized they couldn't incorporate the kinds of weapons typically featured in these kinds of games, such as their Final Fantasy series (there are weapons to be equipped here, but they're in line with the Mario tradition: Hammers, Koopa Shells, etc.). Teams at both companies also spent a year developing the graphics, and when it was completed, the game turned out to be rather groundbreaking for its time. It not only ended up being the last Mario game for the Super NES, but its success showed how adaptable Mario and the franchise could be, leading to the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series.

Before we get into the game itself, remember how, in my review of Donkey Kong Land, I talked about how Nintendo instruction manuals were once really creative and fun, and were more than just boring booklets you didn't care about looking through? Super Mario RPG is another example. While it's not as fun as the Donkey Kong Country manuals, it's nice to flip through, as they decided to put in Luigi as something of a host, since he's not in the game at all (except during the end credits). The manual starts with him telling the reader that Mario doesn't need his help on this particular adventure, so he's going to hang back and give you some pointers instead. He appears here and there throughout, commenting on specific aspects and also telling you where you can find more information on them. Also, the character of Frogfucius pops in a section at the end to give you some more advice. All of this really makes me wish that Nintendo were still trying to make the instruction manuals and player's guides so creative and entertaining outside of just being used for gameplay advice.

The gameplay consists of the traditional RPG mix of exploring the overworld and taking part in turn-based battles, all the while leveling up your characters, and gathering and buying useful items and equipment. There's both the main quest to defeat Smithy, and various optional side-quests, scenarios, and mini-games. But, unlike most RPG's, you spend much of your time in the overworld, which is broken up into various stages of the main lands, which you travel to on the Map Screen. Each of these stages is divided up

into any number of screens, and you transition from one to the other and complete them by walking along these short paths that seem to trail off into nothingness. You not only journey through enemy-infested lands and towns filled with helpful, and not so helpful, civilians, but also take part in mini-games, do some platforming, solve puzzles, and so on. This is also a rare instance of a Mario game where you can't fall to your death. You don't fall at all, for the most part, and in the rare instances where you do fall off 

an edge or into a pit, you're placed right back where you fell, with no ill effects. However, the overworld is where I have most of my issues with the game. My biggest is how everything is at an isometric angle, which the developers are said to have implemented in order to make the world feel more expansive, rather than going for the typical side-scroller aesthetic (as the Paper Mario games later would). But the thing is, this perspective makes certain tasks like platforming really difficult, as you can't tell exactly where you're jumping or if the angle is correct. Specifically, there's 

a spot late in the game where you have to jump across these floating sections of beanstalk and, because of the angle, it's nigh impossible to tell whether you're correctly facing the next one (there's a special item up there that I never got because I could not get up to it). Another issue is the controls. While they're fine enough for the most part, and at the time, Mario had a much wider range of motion than he ever had before, traversing across some of these landscapes can be really hard on your fingers, something I felt even back when I was a young kid. Also, I swear there are 

moments where I'm trying to jump across platforms and Mario either won't jump at the right time, he'll slip off, or the button simply won't register the action when I need it to. This happens in some other time-sensitive scenarios as well. Now, I know what you're going to say but, as old as my Super NES is, the controller still works the way it should much of the time and in other games, so I don't think that's the problem.

Those gripes aside, as I've gotten older, I've really come to enjoy games with expansive worlds that allow you to explore them to your heart's content and this is definitely one of them. I really like walking around the different overworld screens, seeing what I can find, and especially talking to the various townspeople. Not only do I like how the story gradually unfolds and major revelations are made, but some of the characters have rather interesting and downright funny things to say, depending on the 

situation. Speaking of which, amazingly, even though it's only dialogue boxes rather than actual speech, you can feel the characters' personalities coming through. And when you're asked a question while interacting with them, you often get the option to say "no" to them, sometimes in rather dickish ways. It really encourages you to try out all of the possible responses and see the kind of reactions you get, some of which are really unexpected. In addition to the dialogue boxes, there's also some purple text that tells you 

when something major has happened. This is apparently meant to be the "voice" of an omniscient narrator, which can get a little cheeky too. For example, when Mallow joins up with you, it states, "The young frog, Mallow, who doesn't look AT ALL like a frog, joins Mario in his quest." And when Bowser joins you, justifying it by saying he's letting you join the Koopa Troop, the text says, "Mario and his friends have joined the 'Koopa Troop'! (Or so they're pretending.)" As you can probably tell, the game has a great sense of humor about it, and I'll go 

into more detail during the walkthrough. Incidentally, part of that humor comes in the form of references to other games sprinkled in, most notably in how both Link and Samus make cameo appearances at specific points. Even though some of them aren't that fun to try (at least, to me), the inclusion of these optional side-quests, mini-games, and even certain stages make the world feel bigger, and give off the feeling that there's much more going on than just the main quest. The game is also slightly randomized, as there are instances where different events and scenarios will occur, depending on your actions. All of this is what helps to make playing the game such a rewarding experience.

Going back to the game's visual aesthetic, besides the opening cutscene where Bowser abducts Princess Toadstool and the Map Screens, there are some exceptions to the isometric angle, mainly in some mini-games. One example is the first part of the Midas River Course early on, where Mario is sent hurtling down a waterfall, which is done in a borderline overhead angle. Much more notable is the look and feel of the Moleville Mountain mine cart challenge in the third land. For the most part, the 

camera is behind and looking down at Mario, giving more of a fully 3-D feel, or Mode 7, as it was called. In addition, there are some sections in this stage that switch to a side-scrolling angle (the only instance of it in the game). While most of the cutscenes play out in the same isometric style, there are some that really go against the grain, such as one where Mario is kissed by someone (I'll explain why I didn't specify that it was Princess Toadstool when we get to it), and a brief, whirling shot of the entire party being pulled into Smithy's world when you access it near the end.

Finally, there's an optional mini-game you can eventually buy that has the feel of a classic arcade shooter, like Galaga or Space Invaders, but with backgrounds akin to those of Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island.

Across the overworld are various items and objects you can interact with. The ones you're always glad to see are the Save Blocks, which, obviously, allow you to save your progress when you jump on them. There are the classic Question Boxes, or Treasure Boxes, as they're called here, which give you either a certain amount of coins or items. There are also a number of invisible Treasure Boxes found throughout the game (39 in total), and they house rarer Items than usual. Collecting all of the latter is one of the side quests,

and late in the game, you can acquire a special accessory called a Signal Ring that will give off a chime whenever you enter a screen housing one (I'll mention the ones I myself have found or others I'm aware of). There are some objects that launch you up into the air so you can reach otherwise unobtainable areas, such as Spinning Flowers, which you jump on and then, they slowly turn you around before propelling you in the direction you're facing when you hit the jump button; Pot Cannons, which you 

jump in and then automatically pivot and aim in three different directions before you hit the jump button to fire (something else made tricky by the isometric angle); Switches, big green buttons with an exclamation point that trigger all sorts of actions; Smile Trampolines, which bounce you upwards; and Warp Trampolines, which take you back to the Map Screen. And finally, there are objects you jump and ride on, like Barrels, Tiles, and the classic Donut Blocks, though these things can also prove to be quite annoying in their own ways, especially the latter two. 

As for the villages and towns you travel through, the buildings are divided up into various types of residences, inns, and shops. Inns, which are indicated by spinning star signs by the entrances, allow you to restore your parties' Hit Points and Flower Points by taking a rest, and shops, indicated by spinning mushroom signs, allow you to buy items, armor, and accessories to help on the journey. Sometimes, one building serves as both of the latter.

One thing I'm especially grateful for is that there are no random encounters, as all enemies in an area are visible on the overworld screen and you'll only get pulled into a battle if you touch one. (That's another reason I'm not big on RPGs, as I've found that to be so damn annoying in others I've played.) Incidentally, I also like how the battle screens always mimic the look of the environment you're currently exploring in the overworld, even if you got pulled into a fight inside someone's house. The battle sequences were 

modeled on those from the Final Fantasy games and, as per usual, you go through your party members' turns with actions such as, "Attack," where you perform one of your characters' basic attacks; "Special," wherein you use one of their special techniques, which they gain by leveling up, but each of which also uses up an increasing number of Flower Points or FP; "Item," where you use something from your inventory, such as those items that replenish Hit Points, Flower Points, cure characters whose statuses 

have been affected by the enemies' attacks, and so on; and "Etc.," where you can choose for your character to either go into defensive mode or attempt to "Run Away" (the latter option doesn't always work, and you can't do it during boss battles). While Mario is always involved, once all four of your companions have joined the party, you can switch out which of them will join you in battle. A major key is mastering "timed hits," by pressing any of the main buttons at the right moment. Doing so right before your character's attack connects with an enemy can 

increase the damage it inflicts, while doing it before an enemy's attack hits you can decrease the damage you'll receive (not all attacks can be blocked this way). Sometimes, when you defeat an enemy, your character is rewarded with one of five types of Bonus Flowers: "HP Max" completely restores their Hit Points; "Attack Up" increases their attack power by 50% for the remainder of the fight; "Defense Up" does the same for their defense power; "Once Again" gives them another hit; and "Lucky" allows you to play a bonus game after the battle. Other times, for 

no reason, either your or the enemies' attacks simply won't connect and the word "MISS" will pop up onscreen. What's more, some enemies will flat-out run away, either at the start of a battle or in the middle, abandoning the others! Needless to say, when a character's HP hits zero, they're out of the fight until either it's over or you revive them in some manner. If they stay down until after the fight, they'll only have one Hit Point when the next battle comes around, so you have to heal them quickly. And if all three fall, it's Game Over and you start back from the last Save Block you used.

As per usual with RPGs, leveling up your characters is the most crucial key to succeeding here. You get Experience Points at the end of each battle, which are then divided up amongst the party, including both those who participated and those who didn't. There's also an accessory called an "Exp. Booster" that can double the amount of Experience Points earned for the character who's wearing it, and it's possible to double the points that the overall party has earned via the mini-game that's accessed when you get the

Lucky Bonus Flower in battle. When a party member attains a certain number of Experience Points, they level up, and get the choice to increase one of their stats: "HP," increasing their amount of overall Hit Points; "Attack and Defense," increasing their basic attacks' power and their defense against enemies' regular moves; and "Magic Attack and Magic Defense," doing the same for the character's special moves and their defense against enemies' special moves. They also learn new special attacks when 

they hit certain levels, and each of them can go as high as Level 30. You can check your characters' stats, including their current level and the number of points they have to go before the next one, by pressing "X" and opening up the Menu Screen. One stat that can't be improved, however, is a party member's speed, determining what order they get to move in during battle (a character with really high speed can attack multiple times before a very slow enemy can get one hit in). And what's nice is that,

even if you get a "Game Over," you don't lose all the Experience Points, Levels, and Special Moves you've earned when you start back at the last Save Block. (Unfortunately, you do have to sit through all the dialogue and/or cutscenes again, which has always been a pet peeve of mine.)

Staying on the topic of the menu for a second, you also use it to equip the weapons, armor, and accessories you buy from shops and receive from other characters; check the amount of regular Coins, Frog Coins, and Flowers you have, as well as your current HP and FP, the Special Moves they've learned, all the items, both regular and special, you've stocked up, and how many Star Pieces you've collected. In addition, this is where you decide which characters you want to join Mario in battle, an option that

becomes available on the menu as "Switch" once Bowser joins up with Mario, Mallow, and Geno. It's also where you gain access to the Beetle Mania game after you've bought it, with Toad appearing onscreen, chasing after a beetle, and telling you how to do so (he also says, "But please be sure not to cheat with a Turbo-type controller,"). And finally, activating the Menu Screen is the only way to actually pause the game.

Sometimes in battle, the enemies' attacks can inflict adverse status effects on the characters (you can also do the same to them with certain special moves). Some of these effects wear off after a certain amount of time, while others are only reversed once you win the battle. Certain accessories can make a character invulnerable to specific status effects if equipped, and various items and special moves can cure the effects instantly. Said effects are "Fear," which cuts attack and defense in half; "Mushroom," where the

character gets turned into a mushroom and is unable to perform any actions, although they do automatically regain a small amount of Hit Points during each turn (not that it matters if the enemy is whaling on you while you're helpless like this); "Mute," which disables special attacks; "Poison," which turns the character purple and inflicts a little bit of damage during each turn; "Scarecrow," which turns the character into a scarecrow, making them unable to perform basic attacks or use items; and "Sleep," which makes them unable to do anything, though they wake up if they're then hit by an enemy's basic attack.

Obviously, Mario is the character whom you control on the overworld and is also the one who always leads the party into battle. He's the most passive of the main characters, and is the one person who never has any onscreen dialogue boxes; in fact, the closest he comes to actually "saying" anything is when you heal him during battle and the "THANK YOU!" caption appears above his head. There are various times where he has to explain something to NPCs and does so through pantomime, which includes actually becoming other characters to emphasize the point. His "armor" are various kinds of shirts you buy at shops across the land, and his basic attacks consist of punching, whose attack power can be increased with various weapons like the Punch Glove and the Mega Glove; using hammers, like the one you get from the Hammer Bros. early on, the Super Hammer, the Masher, and the Ultra Hammer; and kicking shells, like the NokNok Shell, the Troopa Shell, and the Lazy Shell. Mario's starting Special Move is the simple Jump, where he stomps on enemies, and at Level 3, he masters the Fire Orb, where you push "Y" repeatedly to make him shoot fireballs. As he levels up, he masters more powerful versions of both of these attacks, such as the Super Jump, where you press "Y" repeatedly to repeatedly stomp on an enemy; the Super Flame, where he blasts an enemy with bigger fireballs; the Ultra Jump, where he stomps across all of the enemies in the battle arena, and continues to do so for as long as you can keep hitting the "Y" button at the right rhythm; and the Ultra Flame, where he blasts all of the enemies at once with gigantic Fireballs. As in most games, Mario is the most well-balanced character statistically, with both his regular and special attacks being pretty potent, especially with the use of timed hits

Mallow is your first partner during the journey, as you meet him early on in the Mushroom Kingdom. A white, fluffy guy, he tends to be rather emotional and cries like a big baby whenever he's upset or things don't go his way (his crying causes a literal downpour). What's more, he claims to be a tadpole from Tadpole Pond, even though he, obviously, doesn't look anything like one. It turns out he was adopted and raised by Frogfucius, a sage-like frog who lives there, and who tells him that he must journey with Mario in order to learn where he came from and find his real parents. Eventually, it's revealed that he's from Nimbus Land, a kingdom up in the clouds, and he's actually their long-lost prince. Mallow's armor are various types of pants you can buy, and his basic attacks include extending his arms and punching his enemies, which he can power up with the Whomp Glove and the Sticky Glove; smacking enemies with sticks, like the Froggie Stick and the Ribbit Stick; and using cymbals, like the regular kind and Sonic Cymbals, to disorient enemies. His starting special move is Thunderbolt, where he blasts all onscreen enemies with bolts of lightning, and from there, he learns HP Rain, which he can use to replenish his or a comrade's HP; Psychopath, which shows you an enemy's current HP and, with a timed hit, their inner thoughts; Shocker, where he summons a gigantic lightning bolt down onto a single enemy; Snowy, where he brings a giant snowman down on all of the enemies; and Star Rain, where a giant star comes down, and then jumps up and down on the enemies. Truth be told, most of Mallow's attacks tend to be pretty weak, and he has the lowest HP count of all of the party members. When stronger characters join your party, you'll likely put him in the background for much of the rest of the game (although, there are enemies even near the end that are vulnerable to his Thunderbolt attack).

Geno is a character you meet near the end of the second land. A being from Star Road, he's sent down to collect the seven Star Pieces that scattered across the land when the Smithy Gang arrived. He possesses the body of a doll that belongs to a child in Rose Town and, since his actual name is rather hard for Earthlings to pronounce, he takes the doll's name as well. Since he and Mario have the same goal, he decides to journey with him and Mallow. His armor are various types of capes, and his basic abilities consist of projectiles he fires from his right hand, with the first consisting of him literally firing his fist at an enemy. The Finger Shot allows him to fire four small bullets, the Hand Gun has him shoot larger ones, the Double Punch involves him firing both fists at the same time, and the Star Gun literally fires three stars from his hand. None of these attacks are particularly strong, but Geno makes up for it with the highest speed of any party member and some powerful special moves. While the Geno Beam, where he fires an energy beam, is also kind of weak, he has Geno Boost, where he can increase his or an ally's attack power, as well as defense if you pull off the "timed hit,"; Geno Whirl, where he throws a disc of light that, again with the aid of a timed hit, can score a whopping 9,999 damage points (except on bosses, of course); Geno Blast, where he brings down multicolored beams on all enemies and is a more effective version of Geno Beam; and Geno Flash, where he turns into a cannon and fires a gigantic ball of energy that can really damage all enemies onscreen.

Bowser only joins the group because, by the time you come across him after the opening, he's not only been kicked out of his own castle but all of his remaining troops have deserted him. He tries to save face by making Mario and the others honorary members of the Koopa Troop, but they know it's merely a pretense. His armor is different types of shells, and his basic moves consist of him clawing and hurling projectiles at enemies. He starts with a basic claw attack, but can upgrade to the Chomp Shell, where he swings and throws the empty shell of a Kinklink; Chomp, where he throws an actual Chain Chomp; the Hurly Gloves, which he uses to literally throw Mario(!); the Spiked Chomp, where throws a Chomp with spikes on its head; and the Drill Claw, where he slashes with his right hand and drills into an enemy. These basic attacks are where Bowser excels in combat, as his special moves aren't much to write home about, and he only has four, whereas everyone else has five or, in Princess Toadstool's case, six. Terrorize has him summon the Big Boo to inflict Fear on all enemies; Poison Gas has him summon Mokura to do the same with Poison (both of these, you have to rotate the Control Pad to make them work); the Crusher, which is probably his best special attack, is where he summons a massive, jagged rock to jut up from beneath one enemy (according to the Nintendo Power Player's Guide, he perfected this technique out of jealousy over Mallow's weather control abilities); and Bowser Crush is where he summons a giant Mechakoopa that comes in and tramples over all enemies (you have to press "Y" repeatedly for maximum effectiveness).

Princess Toadstool (this was right before they began calling her "Peach"; she is called that in the Nintendo Switch remake) joins the group not long after Bowser. The instruction manual makes no mention of her as a party member, possibly attempting to make it something of a surprise (quite possible, seeing as how, not counting the sports and racing games, she'd only really taken part in the action in the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2). After you manage to rescue her from Booster, this weirdo who found her after she was blown out of Bowser's Keep and was intent on marrying her, you return her to the Mushroom Kingdom. However, despite the Chancellor's objections, she's determined to continue aiding you in the adventure and sneaks away from the castle to do so. Different dresses make up her armor, while her basic attacks consist of slaps and whacking enemies with stereotypical feminine objects. She starts with the Slap Glove, which can be upgraded to the Super Slap, and she can later buy and use a Parasol, which can inflict 50 points of damage; the War Fan, which inflicts 60; and the Frying Pan, which inflicts 90. Princess Toadstool's battle capabilities are mostly on the defensive side, with many of her special moves being used to heal the other party members. She starts out with two special moves rather than just one: Therapy, where she heals herself or a companion, restoring their HP and various stats, and Group Hug, where she does the same to all three party members, including herself. While both are invaluable, Therapy actually restores HP more effectively. She later learns Come Back, where she revives a fallen comrade and, with a Timed Hit, also completely restores their HP, which makes her especially invaluable in the tougher boss battles during the game's last third. She also learns Sleepy Time, where she can inflict Sleep, and Mute, but both of these moves require you to rotate the Control Pad to ensure their effectiveness, and even then, it's not guaranteed. Her one true offensive special move is Psych Bomb, where she causes bombs to literally rain down on all enemies, and like Mario's jump and fire attacks, you have to repeatedly press "Y" for maximum effectiveness (though, that's not nearly as tough as rotating the Control Pad). The good thing is that no enemies have any resistance to it.

There are many NPCs you run across throughout the game, mostly in the various towns but, sometimes, in the field. Among the most notable are Toad, who's the first character you interact with following the opening at Bowser's Keep, and who gives you the basics on how to battle and use items. During the journey to the Mushroom Kingdom through Mushroom Pass, he repeatedly  runs into and is captured by enemies, and while it's not mandatory he rewards you with Items each time you save him. He makes some sporadic appearances following the initial situation in the kingdom itself, including one very random and unique one in Nimbus Land. Mostly, he shows up to instruct you on how to play a mini-game or event where the controls are different. And right before the final battle with Smithy, he gives you one last chance to stock up on items. Frogfucius, Mallow's adopted grandfather in Tadpole Pond, who breaks it to him that he's not really a tadpole, repeatedly gives you advice when you return to the pond throughout the game, making him an invaluable person to go to if you're stumped. You later meet a student of his in Seaside Town, 

who can sell you some rare items and accessories, some of which give you a nice advantage in battle and allow you to double your rewards. Also at the pond, in Melody Bay, is Toadofsky, a frustrated composer who rewards you if you play a piece of music he finds inspiring. Though his area can be bypassed completely in order to complete the main quest, Yoshi is also here, and when exploring his little isle, you ride on him in order to talk to his brethren, as their speech is unintelligible otherwise. Sergeant Flutter is a friendly Paratroopa whose help you need, along with that of his squad, to reach the top of a cliff in the area called Land's End. Hinopio is a Mushroom guy who lives and operates a shop and "inn" in Barrel Volcano, the penultimate main area (I put inn in quotation marks because his idea of one is making you sleep on a bunch of crates; it still restores your HP, though). And finally, there's Croco, whom you initially have to battle a couple of times but who, later, gives you items (though, not all of them are as useful as they may seem).

In addition to Experience Points, you also usually earn Coins after completing a battle, be they small coins, which are worth just one, or large ones that are worth ten. You can also, again, find coins in Treasure Boxes in the overworld, along with green Frog Coins, which can be used to buy rare items and accessories. In addition, there are Mushrooms found in Treasure Boxes that automatically restore all of your HP and FP; Flowers, which add one point to your overall FP and also restore it fully; and, best of all, the Invincibility Star, allowing you to automatically defeat any and all enemies that are onscreen, and can also help you level up several times over without having to go into battle. Getting to items that you use in your inventory (which can eventually become full up), the most basic types are Mushrooms and Syrups, which restore HP and FP respectively. The regular Mushroom, 

which you can either can buy from shops or find on the ground in areas like the Forest Maze, restores 30 HP, and as the game progresses, you find both Mid Mushrooms, which restore 80 HP, in various shops, and Max Mushrooms, which completely restores your health, in various Treasure Boxes. There are some variations, like Bad Mushrooms, which poison enemies; Moldy Mush, which can only be used on the inventory menu and restores one Hit Point; Rotten Mush, which restores 5 HP; and Wilt Shroom, which restores 10 HP. As for the Syrups, you start with Honey Syrup, which restores 10 FP, and that gets upgraded to Maple Syrup, which restores 40, and the rare Royal Syrup, found in certain Treasure Boxes (and are also sold by Toad before the final battle with 

Smithy), which completely restores your Flower Points. Speaking of Flower Points, you increase your total with three types of items you use on the inventory screen: Flower Tabs, which add one point (these can also be found on the overworld in the form of large flowers on the ground), Flower Jars, which add three, and Flower Boxes, which add five. You'll want get your total FP as high as possible, as it's shared between all party members. Before Princess Toadstool joins the group, and even after, the item you want to make sure you have plenty of is the "Pick Me Up," which revives fallen allies in battle. Other helpful basic items include Able Juice and Freshen Up, which cure status ailments, and Pure Water, which automatically defeats undead enemies.

Rock Candy is a rare type of item that can be used as a weapon, doing quite a bit of damage to all enemies in battle, while Red Essence keeps the user from being attacked for three turns, and Kerokero Cola restores everyone's HP and FP. There are various items you can buy at the Juice Bar and Frog Coin Emporium at Tadpole Pond, such as Bracer and Crystalline, which raise your comrades' Defense during battle; the Froggie Drink, which restores 30 HP for everyone; Elixir, which recovers 80 HP for everyone; Megalixir, which restores 150 HP for everyone; Energizer and Power Blast, which raise an ally's Attack Power in battle; and the Sleepy Bomb, which knocks out all enemies. Similar

items to the latter, like the Fire Bomb, Fright Bomb, and Ice Bomb, can be bought at either Moleville or Seaside Town, but they're very expensive. Yoshi Cookies are what you use on Yo'ster Isle in order to challenge Boshi to the Mushroom Derby, but they can also be used in battle to summon Yoshi himself. When he called, he attempts to eat an enemy and turn it into an Item for you. The Item you get depends on the enemy (some are turned into Mushrooms and Syrups, others are turned into types of Cola or Pick Me Ups, and so on), and if Yoshi fails to eat them, he may give you some Yoshi Candy, which restores 100 HP, or Yoshi-Ade, which boosts one character's Attack and Defense, as consolation. Another type of cookie, the Muku Cookie (named after Mukumuku, an obscure enemy), can be bought at Seaside Town for 69 Coins

before you defeat Smithy's forces, and it restores 69 of everyone's HP, as well as cures any status ailments (you can also get it by using a Yoshi Cookie on an actual Mukumuku). And in case any of you are snickering at how the number 69 is associated with this Item, it's an example of Japanese wordplay, rather than anything perverted. There's also something called a Carbo Cookie, however their only purpose is as part of an optional, and expensive, trade exchange in Moleville. Finally, what's really nice is that, sometimes, when you use an Item in battle, the game will give you a freebie to replace it. In fact, you can get into a freebie streak and get just one after the other!

Most Accessories that you equip on the menu are used to keep you from falling prey to status ailments during battle. These include the Antidote Pin, Fearless Pin, Trueform Pin, and Wake Up Pin, as well as the Safety Badge, which protects you from all of the different ailments, and the Attack Scarf (which can only be worn by Mario), Jinx Belt, and Safety Ring, which protect you from attacks that cause instant death (the latter also makes you immune to elemental magic attacks and status ailments). An accessory known simply as an Amulet cuts the damage you receive from magic attacks in half; the Ghost Medal and Rare Scarf raise your Defense; the Troopa Pin raises your Attack Power; the Scrooge Ring halves the amount of Flower Points you use in a battle; and the aforementioned Exp. Booster increases the amount of Experience Points received at the end of a battle (though the wearer doesn't have to take part in a battle for this to work, only they will reap the benefits). Like the Attack Scarf, the Coin Trick and Jump Shoes can only be worn by Mario, the former doubling the amount of coins earned in a battle, while the latter ensures Mario can use his jump attacks on all enemies. There are other Items and Accessories but those are the most notable ones in general.

Sometimes, after a battle, you get the option to play the Yoshi Shell game and double either the amount of Coins or Experience Points you earned. As I said earlier, you get the opportunity if you manage to score a Lucky Bonus Flower during a battle, but you can also get it by using the Lucky Jewel, which you buy in Moleville, during a battle (you can use the jewel up to ten times), and by using the Lucky Hammer, which you can buy in Seaside Town (it works if you use it on an enemy and defeat them with a Timed Hit). In the game, you see an egg with a baby Yoshi inside it, and it spins around along with an egg containing a creature akin to a Fuzzy, and another with a pink bird. You have to try to keep your eye on Yoshi and choose him in order to win. If you get the bird, you just keep the amount of Coins or Points you already had, and if you get the Fuzzy, you lose them! I remember when I was a kid, I was actually pretty good at this and could keep my eye on the Yoshi egg, despite how fast it would swirl around with the others. Nowadays, I tend to get the Fuzzy more often than not, probably a sign that my eyes aren't as good as they used to be.

There are a good number of basic enemies in the game, some of which are familiar foes from past Mario games, but the majority are completely original. What's more, there are some that appear on the overworld, and many others that only join your initial opponents once the battle actually begins. And, as you'll see, there are many variations of one specific enemy type. Each of these enemies have their own unique stats and, while I won't go into all of them, I will talk about each one's HP, as well as their Attack, Defense, Magic Attack, and Magic Defense whenever they're truly relevant to how tough the enemy is.

The very first enemies you face, during the opening stage in Bowser's Keep, are the Terrapins, which are just armored Koopa Troopas. They're the weakest enemies in the entire game and are a piece of cake to mow through, even when you face a group of up to four in battle. However, when you return to Bowser's Keep near the end, you come up against Terra Cottas, a red-shelled, sword-wielding variant that's much tougher. These guys have 180 HP, 120 Attack Power, and 85 Defense, and a special attack called Terrapunch. However, they're also one of various types of enemies that will flee the battle if Bowser is among the combatants. Fittingly, once the game truly begins, you face Goombas, both during three stages in the first two lands and in an optional battle training course that Toad offers. They're just barely stronger than Terrapins, have no magic attacks, and their special attack, the Thorn Shot, doesn't do much damage, either. In the

Sunken Ship, while fighting one tough enemy, you also face tiny Goombas called Goombettes, which are actually quite tough, as they have 100 HP and 90 Attack; however, they have neither special nor magic attacks. And during the second visit to Bowser's Keep near the end, you battle Gu Goombas, green-colored ones that have 132 HP, Attack of 115, and a special attack called Thornet, which poisons you. Also, while the first two Goomba types are weak against fire, Gu Goombas have no weaknesses. Finally, Goombas are also the center of a mini-game you can play in the Pipe Vault stage in Pond to Pipes. You also run into Sky Troopas, which are just Paratroopas, early on in the game. Like the regular Goombas, they're really weak, have little attack power, and no special or magic attacks. However, in Nimbus Land later on, you come across Heavy Troopas: big, heavy variants that only

have one means of attack, and it takes two turns for them to prepare it. However, this attack packs a wallop: 160 points of Attack Power. They also have 250 HP, 100 Defense Power, and their only weakness is Mario's jump attacks, so you best not take them lightly. And when you return to Bowser's Keep, you run into two more Paratroopa variants. One is the green-shelled Malakoopa, which may have much more HP (95), Attack (130), and Defense Power (120) than the regular Sky Troopas, but have no special or magic attacks, and are weak against thunder. They fight alongside Tub-O-Troopas, which are just green-shelled Heavy Troopas. They fight in the same manner, with attacks they

have to gear up for, but come with double the amount of HP (500), 200 Attack Power, and, unlike the regular Heavy Troopas, are only weak against thunder attacks. However, their Defense is considerably weaker, at just 80. (By the way, many of these enemies were renamed in the Switch remake, with the Tub-O-Troopas, for instance, now being called Grand Troopas, but for the sake of this review, I'm going to stick with the names from the original Super NES version.)

Spikeys, which are akin to Spinies, including how they're sometimes dropped by Lakitus, also appear early on. They're tougher than Goombas and Sky Troopas, with 20 HP and Attack Power of 4, and they can shoot Thorn Shots, but still aren't that difficult to deal with. Later, in Booster Pass, you run into a tougher, green-colored variant called Spikesters. These guys have 50 HP and 48 Attack Power, 60 Defense, and can hit you with Thornet and Funguspike, which turns you into a mushroom. They're vulnerable against ice. It's also in Booster Pass where you're able to fight the Lakitus, who were unreachable before, as they drop the Spikesters. However, they're fairly tough in and of themselves, with 124 HP, pretty good Attack and Defense stats, and have a special attack where they throw a Chain Chomp at you, as well as magic attacks of 

Bolt and Static E!, the latter of which can be quite potent. And in the Barrel Volcano, you contend with a purple variant of Spikey called Oerlikons. They don't have the various attacks as the Spikesters, instead going back to just having Thorn Shot, and their HP, while the highest of these types of enemies,at 85, is low compared to many of the enemies you run into at this point, but they have major Attack and Defense stats, with 120 and 125 respectively. They also have really good Magic Defense, at 50, but are vulnerable to ice attacks.

A new type of enemy you encounter in the Bandit's Way stage of the Mushroom Kingdom is K-9, a dog-like creature with 30 HP and Attack Power of 13. They have two special attacks: Fangs and Howl, the latter of which can inflict Fear. Appearing in battle scenes in both Bandit's Way and Pipe Vault in Pond to Pipes are Frogogs, these big, anthropomorphic frogs that have 80 HP, 15 Attack Power, and have special attacks called Bubble Shot and Sleep Sauce. There are various variations of the Shy Guys, with the first being Shysters, these mechanical types that bounce around on sword-tipped pogo sticks, which you find have overrun the Mushroom Kingdom when you return to it after beating Croco in Bandit's Way. They're the first enemies that can prove to be rather tough, as they have 30 HP, 20 Attack Power, and often fight you in big groups. However, they don't have any

special attacks and their one magic attack is Drain, where they shoot a fireball that takes away just a little bit of your HP. Regular Shy Guys are found in Rose Way in Pond to Pipes, and have a surprisingly large amount of HP (78) and Attack Power (29). Along with the slingshots they conk you with, they also have two special attacks, Doom Reverb and Lullaby, which can inflict Mute and Sleep respectively. A type called a Shy Ranger appears in the Pipe Vault, accompanying the Piranha Plants you encounter there. Though they have a whopping 300 HP and 100 Attack Power, no weak points, and attack with knives, they're more likely to run for it than stand and fight (something that many of the various Shy Guys tend to do); however, you get 20 Experience Points for defeating one. In Land's End, you come across Shy Aways, which have fairy-like wings on their backs. They have 140 HP, 90 Attack, and 50 Defense, and use the Mute-inducing Elegy and the Willy Wisp 

magic attack. Again, they may also decide to run for it. While journeying through Nimbus Land, you battle green-colored types called Sling Shys, which not only attack using slingshots, like the normal Shy Guys in Rose Way, but also have status-affecting special attacks like Doom Reverb, S'crow Bell, and Spore Chimes. They have slightly less HP than the Shy Aways (120), but better Attack and Defense (108 and 80), and aren't really weak against anything. Though, yet again, they may decide to run for it, especially if all of their allies are defeated. In the penultimate stage, the Gate, you encounter Springers, which are green-colored Shysters. These are much tougher than the initial ones, as they have 122 HP, major Attack and Magic Attack stats, at 155 and 100 respectively, 110 on Defense, and there's nothing they're particularly weak 

against. Like the Shysters, they use the Drain attack, but can also put a party member to sleep with an attack called Somnus Waltz. The only really encouraging bit of info about them is that their Magic Defense is somewhat low, at just 79.

In Kero Sewers and the Forest Maze are rats called Rat Funks, which have 32 HP, 20 Attack Power, and can poison you. However, they're also likely to flee rather than fight. In the water in the sewers are fish enemies called Gobies (just Cheep Cheeps with another name) that, despite having no special or magic attacks, have 40 HP and 22 points of Attack Power. The sewers are also haunted by Boo enemies that are all called the Big Boo, even though that name is usually reserved for the largest and meanest Boos. Regardless, they have 43 HP, 18 Attack Power, and have a special attack called Scream that inflicts Fear. Big Boos are often accompanied in battle by two other types of ghostly enemies. One is the Hobgoblin, which has 50 HP, 22 Attack Power, and has two special attacks: Dark Claw and Elegy, which inflict Poison and Mute respectively. The other is the

immensely creepy-looking Shadow, which has a whopping 85 HP, 24 Attack Power, and two special attacks: Endobubble, which inflicts Fear, and Glowing Shot. There are a number of enemies throughout the game that are disguised to look like Treasure Boxes, the first of which is Pandorite, in Kero Sewers. This thing is really tough, as it has 300 HP, Attack Power of 30, and has two special and magic attacks each. In addition to the Fear-inducing Scream, it also has Carni-Kiss, which does twice the amount of normal attack damage. Both of its magic attacks are fire-based: Flame, which targets one of the fighters, and Flame Wall, which attacks the entire group, and both can pack a wallop. The only thing Pandorite is really weak against is Mario's jump attacks, a running theme with all of these types of monsters.

Throughout Rose Way are starfish enemies called Starslaps, which have 62 HP and 25 Attack Power, and while they have no offensive special or magic attacks, they do have Recover, which can make them annoying to go up against. When battling them, you also often have to contend with Snapdragons, these attacking daisies that have 90 HP, 28 Attack Power, and a special attack called Pollen Nap, which, as you may guess, induces Sleep. Also in these battles are Arachnes, big, yellow, three-eyed spiders with 82 HP, 35 Attack Power, and have a special attack called Venom Drool that, obviously, can poison you. And while traveling through Rose Way, as well as searching the Moleville Mines, you come across bandits that are simply called Crooks. They're pretty weak, with just 38 HP, but also have 35 Attack Power, as well as a pretty potent special attack called Knife Toss. However, they're another one 

of the enemies that are likely to opt to run for it. In the Pipe Vault are the classic Piranha Plants, which are rather serious, with 168 HP, 45 Attack Power, no weak points, and can attack with both Pollen Nap and S'crow Dust. Also in the Pipe Vault, and later on in the Moleville Mines, are fireball enemies called Sparkies, which are just Podoboos with a different name. They have 120 HP, 40 Attack Power, and are weak against any sort of ice attacks.

In the Forest Maze, you run into hostile sentient mushrooms called Amanitas, which sometimes act like normal mushrooms on the ground in order to fool you into getting close so they can attack. They have 52 HP, 35 Attack Power, and can turn you into a mushroom with a special attack called Sporocyst. They're weak against fire attacks, but what's annoying is that they're among several types of enemies which you don't get any coins for defeating. Buzzers are these aggravating bee enemies, reminding me of the Zingers in the Donkey Kong Country games, that chase you around when they spot you. Moreover, in some parts of the Forest Maze, they swarm in groups of three or four, making a fight nearly impossible to avoid. They have significantly less HP than the Amanitas (43), but just a little more Attack Power (37), and have the Poison-inducing Thornet

attack. They're weak against jump and thunderbolt attacks, and can sometimes be made to retreat when hit. Often joining the Buzzers in battle are Octolots, bizarre enemies with 99 HP, 38 Attack Power, and three magic attacks: Flame, Flame Wall, and Lightning Orb, the latter of which, like Flame, targets one specif party member. They themselves are weak against fire, as well as jump attacks. You also find Wigglers roaming around the forest, and you can jump on them repeatedly in order to get coins. Also, if you manage to keep doing so long enough, they sometimes give you Frog Coins. In battle, they have 120 HP, 40 Attack Power, and have a pretty powerful magic attack called Sand Storm, which induces Fear. Moreover, they have Bubble Shot and Vigor Up!, which boosts their attack power. And speaking of Donkey Kong Country, accompanying them are Guerrillas, which look like Donkey Kong, only 

chained up, with a spiked ring on their heads (more to the point, if you use Mallow's Psychopath move on them, their inner thoughts are, "Don't confuse me with someone else!"). They have 135 HP, 42 Attack Power, and a hard-hitting special attack called Boulder Toss. Both them and the Wigglers are vulnerable to fire.

Bob-Ombs roam the Moleville Mines, and while they have 90 HP, their defense is lousy, they have no special or magic attacks, and are vulnerable to both jump and fire attacks. Most of the time, they explode in a party member's face before you can vanquish them, and this can cause some damage, as their attack power is 50. The Mines are also home to Magmites, which are meant to be Buzzy Beetles with rock shells (it's more obvious in that artwork than in the actual game). While they're really weak, with only 26 HP, and don't have any special or magic attacks, they can be a nuisance, as they have a Defense Power of 70 and are only really vulnerable to ice attacks, making them hard to kill. They also have an Attack Power of 45, so they can inflict some damage. Often appearing in the battles in mines are Clusters, which are

like floating masses of crystals with eyes. These things, on the other hand, are rather tough, as they have 60 HP, 50 Attack and Defense power, no weak points, and a special attack called Psyche! that either instantly kills your character or reduces your HP to just one point if you manage to block it with a Timed Hit (that goes for all instant-death attacks). They also have a magic attack called Crystal, which literally dumps large crystals on your head, and can cause some damage. Just about as tough are these flying pig enemies called Enigmas, which have 150 HP, 55 Attack Power, and a special attack called Echofinder that both damages and inflicts Mute on a party member. However, they can't defend themselves as well as Clusters and are vulnerable to Mario's jump attacks.

Among the plants you find in Booster Pass are some enemies called Artichokers, which have 200 HP, good Attack and Defense stats, a special attack called Stench that inflicts Poison, and the magic abilities Static E! and Recover. They're vulnerable against jump and fire attacks. In a similar vein, carrot-like enemies called Carroboscis often show in the battles in this stage. They have 90 HP, pretty serious Attack Power, at 55, and special attacks that all inflict status ailments: S'crow Bell, Spore Chimes, and Doom Reverb. Like the Artichokers, they're vulnerable to jump and fire, and their Defense isn't as good. Booster Pass and Booster Tower are where the Snifits appear, though there are several different kinds. In the tower itself are a type called Spookums, which are basically Snifits in training. They have 98 HP, Attack and 

Defense stats of 50 and 45 respectively, and attack with the Mute-inducing Gunk Ball, as well as the magic attacks Crystal and Drain. They're vulnerable to ice but, if you use Bowser's Terrorize attack on them, they'll flee. You can also fight the Snifsters, a trio of Snifits that work closely with Booster and kind of serve as mini-bosses. The same goes for Apprentices, Snifits that appear in a secret area in Booster Pass that's accessed by hitting a switch in the tower. I'll explain their deal when we go through the game. 

Booster Tower is crawling with enemies, some of which are really strange. The most innocuous-looking are the Rob-Ombs, a tougher variation of Bob-Ombs. While they actually have less HP, at just 42, and can only attack by self-destructing, their Attack Power is 54 and their Defense is 63, making them much harder to put down than the regular Bob-Ombs. Chomps not only have 100 HP, 60 Attack Power, and 65 Defense, but their special attacks are the aforementioned Carni-Kiss and Iron Maiden, which inflicts Fear. They're vulnerable to thunder attacks.

In one tiled room, you may end up triggering blue-colored cousins of the Sparkies that are just called Fireballs. They're very weak, with only 10 HP, lousy Defense , at just 16, and they're vulnerable to both ice and jump attacks, but their attack power is 55. They also attack with two magic attacks: Drain and Mega Drain. And there are Blasters, which fire Bullet Bills, and when you battle them, they come with 120 HP, 70 Attack and Defense, and an attack called Blazer that's an instant kill move. They're also vulnerable against thunder attacks. Often accompanying these overworld enemies in battle are weird enemies called Remo Cons, which are basically big, robotic marionettes. They have 88 HP, pretty potent Attack and Defense stats, and attack with two special moves: Body Slam, which does double the amount of normal damage, and Eerie Jig, which turns you into a scarecrow.

Their one weakness is fire attacks. Jesters often show up in battle as well, and they have a lot of HP, at 151, Attack Power of 48, and several special and magic attacks. They can hit you with Flame Stone, where they bring a big, flaming stone crashing down onto one party member; Full House, where they throw a single card at you; and Wild Card, where they hit you with four cards, doing quite a bit of damage. On the plus side, they don't have good Defense, and are weak against ice. An absolutely pathetic type of enemy here is the Orb User, which are like living scepters. They have 8 HP and 42 Attack Power, and while their defense is 80 and they have no weaknesses, you can easily take them down in just a few moves. They also often use Recover more than any of their other magic attacks, which can be considerable: Flame, Flame Wall, and Bolt.

Despite being fairly peaceful, and having the easiest Star Piece to collect, Star Hill does have several types of enemies crawling around. There are Geckos, which have 92 HP, 68 Attack, and 46 Defense, and can hit you with Bubble Shot, Venom Drool, and Sleep Sauce. They also sometimes do a move called Fun & Run, where they attack one party member with their tongues, causing only mild damage, and then attempt to run off! They're vulnerable to fire. Pulsars are green-colored variants of the Clusters from the Mines, which have 69 HP and much more

substantial Attack and Defense stats (75 and 90, respectively). Like Clusters, they have an instant kill attack, Migraine, and have more magic attacks: Static E!, Bolt, and Electroshock. Unlike Clusters, Pulsars are vulnerable to fire attacks. Mukumukus, the namesake of the Muku Cookie Item, are these gopher-like enemies that have 108 HP, 60 Attack, and 47 Defense, and attack by clawing and throwing stuff like bones, coins, and even musical notes! They also do something called Missed Me!, where they burrow underground, pop up randomly, make a failed attempt to throw something at a party member, and then head back to their normal battle positions. Something similar happens you use a Muku Cookie: the Mukumuku shows up, tries to attack one of your party, only to hurt itself and send it into retreat, after which you get the Item's benefits. Sackits are blue-colored 

variants of the Crooks in Rose Way and are a lot tougher, with 152 HP, 70 Attack Power, and no weaknesses. But they don't have any attacks that differentiate them from Crooks, their Defense is fairly weak, and they will sometimes run for it. The craziest enemies here are Mastadooms: skeletalMastodons that fight alongside Mukumukus and Sackits. They're definitely the strongest enemies on Star Hill, as they have 180 HP, 90 Attack Power, and 65 Defense, and have both the ability to attack with Blizzard and Drain Beam, which damage all three of your party. Their regular attacks pack a wallop as well. They're weak against fire.

For me, the Sea and Sunken Ship stages are where the game really starts to get hard, and that includes the enemies. You have Zeostars, green variants of the Starslaps from Rose Way, who are much tougher, with 90 HP, 75 Attack, and 60 Defense, and can not only recover health but also hit you with the Poison-inducing Viro Plasm. Like the Starslaps, they're weak against fire and thunder attacks. In a similar vein, there are Mr. Kippers, which are green-colored version of the Gobies in Kero Sewers. They're also quite hardy, with 133 HP and 75 Attack Power, but have pretty lousy Defense and no special or magic attacks. Bloobers, or Bloopers, can be found swimming about in the Sea, and also appear in battles there and in the Sunken Ship. Like Mr. Kippers, they have high HP (130) and Attack Power (80), as well as a special attack called Ink Blast that does a little bit of damage. However, their defense is also pretty bad, they're vulnerable to fire and thunder, and will sometimes flee. Often accompanying these guys in battle are jellyfish-like enemies called

Leukos, and these things are serious business. They have 220 HP, 65 Attack, and 50 Defense, and have magic attacks like Bolt, Static E!, and Solidify, all of which do considerable damage (I once got a Game Over in a fight with them because I went in unprepared). Their one weakness is fire. You also face a crab-like enemy called Crusty in these fights, and while these guys don't have quite as much HP (80), they have 100 on both Attack and Defense. Fortunately, they're also vulnerable against fire and thunder.

There are various ghostly and undead enemies found within the Sunken Ship. One is the Greaper, a Grim Reaper enemy that has 148 HP, 72 Attack, and 50 Defense, and, in addition to the magic attacks of Crystal, Lightning Orb, and Blizzard, also has a special attack called Deathsickle that both causes damage and induces Fear. Yet again, their weakness is thunder attacks. Dry Bones are just as much of a nuisance here as they are in the regular Mario games. When you battle them, they can only be taken down by special attacks but even then, they only crumble into bones on the overworld screen. And, like in the other games, they will quickly reassemble themselves and try to pull you into another fight unless you get away from them. While they have no defense capabilities,

their Attack Power is 75, so they can do some damage if you don't quickly end the fight. In these battles, you also often face Reachers: skeleton enemies that shield themselves with tombstones. They don't have any magic attacks and are vulnerable to thunder, but they have 184 HP, 95 Attack, and 75 Defense. In addition to using Bone Toss, they also have the special attack called Elegy, which induces Mute. Straw Heads are akin to the Kero Sewer Hobgoblins, only with 131 HP, 80 Attack Power, and 63 Defense, as well as some status-inflicting special attacks: Poison-inducing Stench and Dark Claw, S'crow Funk, and Mush Funk. They're also weak against thunder, as are the Gorgons, which are like the Enigmas in the Moleville Mines. These guys have 140 HP, 86 Attack, and 73 Defense, and, in addition to the Mute-inducing Echofinder, have two serious magic attacks: Willy Wisp and Diamond Saw. One type of

enemy in the ship that's not undead is the Alley Rat: pink-colored versions of the Rat Funks. They have 105 HP, 70 Attack, and 55 Defense, but like the Rat Funks, their only special attacks are poisoning you, and they sometimes flee the battle. And, also like in Kero Sewers, there's a Treasure Box enemy here: Hidon. This thing is quite a foe, as it has 600 HP, 110 Attack, and 90 Defense, and attacks with Carni-Kiss, Static E!, Willy Wisp, and Flame Stone. Like I said earlier, it also produces sets of four Goombettes, which are very tough, despite their small size, and Hidon will immediately replace them as soon as you defeat them, forcing you to split your attention between enemies. However, you get 100 coins and 50 Experience Points for defeating Hidon, so the fight is worth it.

In Land's End and Bean Valley, and sometimes in Belome's Temple, you come across numerous variants of enemies you've faced before, such as Buzzer's stronger, red-colored cousin, the Stinger. These bees have 65 HP, 78 Attack Power, and not only have Thornet but also Funguspike. Chow is a red variant of the K-9, and 80 HP, 82 Attack, and 77 Defense. They attack with Poison and the Fear-inducing Howl, as well as the potent Claw attack. Geckits are orange-colored Geckos that have 100 HP, 84 Attack, and 63 Defense, and can hit you with Sleep Sauce. But

what's amusing about them is how they're always confused and disoriented, and may end up accidentally hitting and damaging the enemies that join them or even themselves! Spinthras are green-colored Arachnes that have 230 HP, 110 Attack, and 70 Defense, and can either poison or hit you with S'crow Fangs. Fink Flowers are variants of the Snapdragons, which have very weak Defense (32), but make up for it with 200 HP and 95 Attack, the ability to recover health, and the status-affecting attacks S'crow Dust and Pollen Nap. Their weakness is fire, but they're most vulnerable against basic hits. Kriffids are like the Artichokers in Booster Pass and are major threats all around: 320 HP, 95 Attack, and 100 Defense, with the Mute-inducing Gunk Ball special attack, and the magic attacks of Blast, Sand Storm, and Flame. Their weakness is ice. Ribbites are orange variants of the Frogogs (they're actually their children, as revealed by Mallow's Psychopath 

move) and, like Fink Flowers, have weak Defense Power, at a mere 20, but make up for it with 250 HP and 115 Attack Power, as well as the special attacks of Venom Drool and Sleep-Sauce. The same goes for Octovaders, purple-colored Octolots: they have so-so Defense Power at 50, but 250 HP and 90 Attack, use Sleep-Sauce and Gunk Ball as their special attacks, and Lightning Orb, Bolt, and Drain Beam as their magic ones. And Chewies are green Piranha Plants (though, in the overworld, they're colored red like regular ones) which, while they have relatively low HP (90), have 110 Attack and 82 Defense, no weak points, use draining magic attacks, and the Pollen Nap special attack. 

The one wholly new enemy in the actual stage of Land's End is the Shogun: ant-like enemies that appear in some of the sand swirls in the desert region. You need to use these swirls to reach Belome's Temple, but the Shoguns make this tough by changing swirls on you, and you may also have to fight them before you can use it. They have 150 HP, 100 Attack, and 80 Defense, as well as the special moves Carni-Kiss and Vigor Up!, which increases their attack power. Like the Wigglers, you get coins for bouncing on a Shogun's head, and a Frog Coin if you bounce three times consecutively, without falling off.

As far as enemies that only appear in Bean Valley, there's a Chomp Chomp, a gold-colored Chain Chomp which you come across in a secret underground area in the valley; however, in the actual battle, you could face up to four of them. They're pretty tough, as they have 150 HP, 100 Attack, and 92 Defense, and can hit you with Carni-Kiss. Like regular Chomps, they are weak against thunder attacks. Another Treasure Box enemy, called Box Boy, is also here, and it's the toughest one yet: 900 HP, 180 Attack, 110 Defense, and some very potent attacks. It has Carni-Kiss and Scream, which causes Fear, as special attacks, while its magic attacks consist of Blast and Water Blast, the latter of which is a pretty devastating attack that affects all party members. If you defeat it, you're rewarded with 150 coins and 100 Experience Points. Often accompanying the other enemies in 

battle are Fautsos, which look like genies. They're also quite formidable, as they have 420 HP, 130 Attack, and 100 Defense, as well as pretty strong Magic Defense, and some potent magic attacks: Aurora Flash, which can possibly put all three party members to sleep; Boulder, which hits the entire party with an avalanche of stones and mud, causing serious damage; and Meteor Blast, which flashes a bunch of stars across the screen and can also cause considerable damage. The Fautsos are weak against jump and ice attacks, meaning it's best to let Mario have at them.

Nimbus Land has two types of bird-guard enemies. One is the red-colored Birdy, which has 150 HP, 110 Attack, and 75 Defense, and use their spears in an attack called Grinder. They're weak against ice attacks, and Mallow's Thunderbolt can actually stun them, causing them to become confused and attack themselves or their allies. The Bluebirds, on the other hand, have 200 HP, but only 95 Attack and 50 Defense, and, in addition to Grinder, attack with Blizzard and Crystal. Because of that, it shouldn't be too surprising that they're vulnerable to fire. Inside Nimbus Castle are fan enemies called Pinwheels, which have fairly little HP, at just 99, but considerable Attack and Defense power (120 and 90), and attack with Static E! and Lightning Orb. Muckles, which are jellyfish enemies akin to Leukos, appear in these battles and come with higher 

HP (320) and Attack (90), but their Defense is weaker, as is their Magic Defense (both are 44). Like Bluebirds, they use Blizzard and Crystal attacks and, thus, are also vulnerable to fire. Orbisons are blue-colored variants of the Orb Users in Booster Tower and while, at 30, their HP is still really low, considering, their Attack and Defense are much more potent, at 113 and 140. They also tend to use Recover and Mega Recover, which can prolong the fights with them to an annoying extent. Unlike the Orb Users, they do have a weakness, in Mario's jump attacks. Earlier, near Seaside Town, in the Sunken Ship, and Belome's Temple, you encountered NPCs known as Shamans, who acted as shopkeepers and merchants. But in Nimbus Castle, enemy Shamans appear in battle, coming with 150 HP and 92 Attack, and using various magic attacks like Diamond Saw,

Lightning Orb, Crystal, Blizzard, and Flame Stone. But, while they have great Magic Defense, they only have 50 points of regular Defense and are very vulnerable to basic attacks. Also, if you hit one with a non-magical special attack, he may flee the battle. And finally, there are Jawfuls, which actually sleep during the first few turns of a fight, but when they wake up, they come with 278 HP, 130 Attack, and 110 Defense. However, they don't have any special or magic attacks, and are themselves very vulnerable to the latter.

In the Barrel Volcano, you come across Magmus, a redder version of the Magmites from the Moleville Mines. They're everywhere in the volcano and, like Magmites, have relatively low HP, at just 50, but major Attack and Defense stats (110 and 140). Also, unlike Magmites, they can increase their Defense further with Valor Up, although they're still vulnerable to ice attacks (as are most of the enemies in the volcano). A variation of the Dry Bones, known as Vomer, is also found in the volcano, but the only difference is they have stronger Attack and Magic Attack, at 110 and 9. A much stronger cousin of the Shoguns, Armored Ants, are found here as well. Their HP is a staggering 230, their Attack and Defense powers are also nothing to sneeze at, with 130 and 120 respectively, and their Magic Defense is at 80. Like the Shoguns, they use Vigor Up! to further increase their Attack Power, but also 

use the attack called Endobubble, which inflicts Fear on one party member. Pyrospheres, which are a redder version of the Sparkies and Fireballs, come with 167 HP, 105 Attack power, and the magic attacks Drain and Flame Stone. However, both their regular and Magic Defense is pretty low. Vomers are pink-colored versions of Dry Bones and, just like with the regular version, basic attacks do nothing, but special attacks put them down. They don't have any new attacks, but their Attack Power is much stronger, at 110. They're often accompanied in battle by a green-colored variation of the Guerrillas from the Forest Maze called Chained Kongs. They have an enormous amount of HP (355), and while their Defense is so-so, at 80, and they have no new attacks, their Attack power is 150. Though not visibly fire-themed, they are also vulnerable to ice attacks. 

There are couple of enemies in the Barrel Volcano that come off like mini-bosses, such as the Corkpedite, a big, golem-like enemy that has major Attack and Defense Power. Moreover, defeating it is not as straightforward as most others, as both its head and body have separate HP levels, meaning you have to destroy each of them. They have the same weaknesses (ice, again), but the head has 200 HP, and much stronger Attack and Defense stats, at 130 and 110; it also uses the Fear-inducing Sand Storm attack. The body's stats aren't as tough (100 for Attack and 99 for Defense), but it has 300 HP and uses the instant kill attack called Migraine. It's best to attack and destroy the body first, as the head can't function without it. You get 80 Experience Points in all for defeating a Corkpedite. A rarer and even more bizarre enemy, the

Stumpet looks like a cross between a tree stump, a volcano, and an octopus. Be glad that they're rare, because these things are not to be trifled with. They have 500 HP and 200 Attack power, along with 120 on Defense, and can produce Magmuses for you to fight. What's more, their attacks are probably the most powerful among basic enemies, especially the second one. Backfire is when a Stumpet erupts and shoots balls of magma at the party, damaging one particular member. However, it's the silly-sounding Va-Va-Voom, where the Stumpet erupts with an onslaught of fireballs against one party member, that you have to watch out for, as it deals a lot of damage. These attacks take a turn to charge up, so you can get some hits in beforehand, and Stumpets are also weak against ice, but you still have to be prepared for that one attack. Like Corkpedites, you're rewarded with a large amount of Experience Points, 70, for defeating a Stumpet.

In addition to the toughest versions of Goombas, Sky Troopas, and Terrapins, Bowser's Keep is also inhabited by tougher versions of other enemies you've encountered. For example, Star Crusters are variants of the Crusties found in and around the Sunken Ship. They actually have slightly less HP than Crusties, as well as low magic stats, but have considerable Attack and Defense stats of 135 and 145. Also, if you hit them with a normal attack, they strike back with a move that puts the attacker to sleep. They're vulnerable against ice attacks. Often accompanying the Star Crusters and Tub-O-Troopas are Forkies, which are silver versions of the Jawfuls. Like them, they don't initially attack, until they themselves are attacked. They're quite tough, too, as they have 350 HP, Attack and Defense stats of 170 and 120, and very high magic 

stats, with 128 on Magic Defense, leaving them with no weaknesses. Their special attack, Storm, targets one party member and can inflict some major damage. Glum Reapers are silver-colored Greapers and, like them, have above average HP, at 180, and high Attack stats, at 120, but their defense is somewhat weak. In addition to Deathsickle, they have an attack simply called Scythe that be an instant kill if you don't block it. And while, like Greapers, they use Lightning Orb as part of their magic arsenal, they also attack with Willy Wisp and Drain Beam. Even the Bill Blasters from Booster Tower have a more powerful variant here, in the form of large cannons called Big Bertha. Like the Bill Blasters, they have the potentially fatal attack called Blazer, in addition to an impressive 350 HP, and major Attack and Defense stats of 170 and 130. But they have no Magical Defense whatsoever, and are still vulnerable to thunder attacks.

Many of the enemies in the final two stages, the Gate and the Factory, are machine-made duplicates of bosses you've faced (though, fortunately, not as tough), but there are some wholly "original" ones as well. I say "original" because there are some more variants here, like Doppel, a more transparent version of the Shadows in Kero Sewers. They have very high HP, at 333, and Attack power of 140, as well as two status-affecting special attacks: Echofinder and Endobubble. But while, like the Shadows, they have no real weak points, they also don't have very good Defense or Magic Defense. There's also a Boo variation here: Li'l Boos (renamed High Boos in the Switch version), which have a little more HP than the Big Boos in Kero Sewers (though not much, as it's just

66), along with major Attack and Magic Defense, with both at 120. However, they have the same attacks, their regular Defense is pitiful (just 20), and their Magic Attack is just so-so, at 74. And Puppoxes are purple-colored versions of the Dolloxes from Booster Tower, battling alongside Doppels and Springers. They're more formidable than Dolloxes, with 300 HP, 145 Attack, and 110 Defense, and, along with Hammer Toss, use the Scarecrow-inducing Eerie Jig and Sleep-inducing Somnus Waltz. But, like the Dolloxes, they have very poor Magic Defense and are vulnerable to fire. 

A startling type of enemy when it appears in battle is Hippopo, a big, blue hippopotamus-like creature with big ears and a small, blue warrior riding it. These guys are quite formidable, as they have 400 HP, 150 Attack, and a good number of special and magic attacks. Among the former are Poison and Body Slam, and they have six of the latter: Mega Drain, Drain Beam, Blast, Flame Stone, Sand Storm, and Solidify. However their Magic Defense is weak, at just 53, and they're vulnerable to thunder attacks. Often accompanying the Hippopos in battle are black-clad enemies simply called Ninjas. These guys have 235 HP, 130 Attack, and come at you with Knife Toss and Shuriken Toss. They're 

also very resistant to a number of different types of special and magic attacks, meaning it's best to hit them with basic ones. And even when you manage to drain all of a Ninja's HP, he'll throw in one more desperate attack before he kicks the bucket. Ameboids are an especially bizarre enemy, as they look like blue spots on the overworld screen, but grow into their actual shape (blue and slimy, and vaguely akin to that of a Goomba) when you approach them and they attack. They have 220 HP, 130 Attack Power, and 120 Magic Defense, and use the Poison and Fear-inducing Viro Plasm and Psycho Plasm. They only have one point of regular defense, but if you don't destroy one right away, it splits into five versions of itself, each with the same stats as the original. Jabits are drill bit enemies that have 150 HP and 120 Attack, but just 95 Defense and a pathetic 34 Magic Defense.

They're weak against thunder attacks and, more often than not, they use a self-destruct technique called Last Shot!, which does a generous amount of damage to one party member. And finally, in the lead up to the final battle with Smithy in the factory, you face three different kinds of hammer enemies. The first are Mad Mallets, which have 200 HP and 120 Attack, but have no special or magic attacks, only average regular and Magic Defense, and are weak against thunder, as are the other two. Second are Pounders, which actually have less HP than Mad Mallets, only a little more Attack Power, and their Defense stats still aren't that great. However, they do have the special attack known as Hammer Toss. Finally, Poundettes have even less HP and Defense stats than Pounders, and the same amount of Attack Power, but, in addition to Hammer Toss, they have an attack called Fear Hammer, and you can probably guess why it's called that.

Putting my critical hat back on, as I said in the introduction, I've always had mixed feelings about the game's graphics. On the positive side, as much as I don't like the isometric angle, I think the various lands all look good, and I also like how unique they are from each other, both in general and in their individual stages. You start out in the Mushroom Kingdom, working your way through the enemy-infested paths, hills, and marshes around it, and from there, journey through various kinds of creepy, underground areas like sewers, mines, and caves; 

forests, rocky passes, mountain and desert regions; areas found by the seashore, as well as a sunken ship; a temple; a kingdom up in the clouds; an active volcano; and finally battle Smithy and his minions in his large factory in an alternate dimension. What's more, the various villages are unique in both their look and their inhabitants. While many are populated by the traditional Mushroom people, there's also Yo'ster Isle, where the Yoshis live; Moleville and its anthropomorphic moles, along with some Mushroom people here and there; Monstro Town, which is 

inhabited by reformed enemies; and Nimbus Land in the clouds, where everyone looks like Mallow. However, it's the game's overall visual aesthetic and character designs that I've always been rather so-so on. Like the Donkey Kong Country games, it uses pre-rendered graphics but strives for a more 3-D feel, and while it was fairly groundbreaking for the time, it, inevitably, hasn't aged well, while I feel the DKC games still hold up. Even at the time, I wasn't that big on how the game looked, especially 

when the Nintendo 64 came out a few months later and Super Mario 64 blew it out of the water in every regard, especially that one. That also included being able to move in any direction, as the range of motion in Super Mario RPG is still quite limited. Of course, now I realize that's an unfair comparison, but even taking it on its own merits, I'm not big about the game's look, especially with the main characters and NPCs. They look squashed and chibi-like, like a

bunch of dolls running around, and the animation on both their movements and facial features feels very stiff. Though I haven't played it, I've seen clips of the Nintendo Switch remake and I find it to be more visually appealing.

When I said Super Mario RPG sounded unlike any Mario game that came before, I especially meant the music. It was composed by Yoko Shimomura, who'd scored games like Final Fight, Street Fighter II, and The King of Dragons, and would go on to do the music for Parasite Eve, the Kingdom Hearts games, and, fittingly, the Mario & Luigi games. While the music manages to keep the feel of Mario, it also reinforces that this is a much bigger and grander adventure than any he's been on before, one with mystical and celestial overtones, and with much higher stakes than usual. If you don't press any buttons right away when the game starts up, you get a fast-paced, three-minute intro that goes through the main cast of characters, and shows off the different enemies you'll go up against and the lands you'll journey through, all set to a really fun, upbeat tune that, fittingly, is called, "Fun Adventure, Cheerful Adventure." However, it ends on a rather serious note, one that's reflected when you actually play the game and, after the opening in Bowser's Keep, you hear this uncertain and kind of eerie piece of music when you see the giant sword, Exor, come through the clouds and jam into the castle. Once you really get into the game, you come to realize that, while many stages and locations have their own unique leitmotifs, there are many themes that Shimomura repeatedly returns to. The most common is "Battling Monsters," which plays during battles with basic enemies, and which is another upbeat, energetic, and cheerful tune, though, it can also make you forget that you can potentially die if you don't take things seriously (if you get a Game Over, the music slows to a crawl and dies as you return to your last save point). She also uses music to differentiate the two kinds of boss battles. When you face off against "normal" bosses, as in those not affiliated with Smithy, you get a slower, more low-key theme titled "Battling Strongish Monsters,"; however, when you battle against a boss that is one of Smithy's lieutenants, you get a punchier and stronger electronic piece called "Battling a Weapon Boss," which lets you know that this fight is serious business. Similarly, if you hear a rather downbeat, uneasy theme when you enter a town, it means that Smithy's forces are either nearby or have invaded the town, even if you can't see them. You also hear the same lovely, twinkling theme whenever you collect a Star Piece (a similar piece plays during the cutscene where Geno possesses Gaz's doll), and "Elegy," a sad piano theme that plays during emotional moments, like when Frogfucius reveals to Mallow that he's not really a tadpole and is adopted (the sound of it is also the basis for the enemy attack of the same name).

There are some stages that share the same musical motif. For instance, you first hear "Danger Abounds on the Journey" in the Mushroom Way stage, and it's reused many times, in stages like Rose Way, Booster Pass, and Land's End, as well as for the exteriors of stages that, otherwise, have completely different music. Despite its title, it's actually a fun and even joyful-sounding tune, and the same goes for "Danger Aplenty on the Journey," which you hear in Bandit's Way and Bean Valley, and has a fast-paced, William Tell Overture-like sound. By contrast, "Monsters Abound in the Dungeon" is a creepy, pipe organ piece that plays in many underground stages, like Kero Sewers, the Mole Mines, the Sea, and Belome Temple. "Let's Take the Midas River," on the other hand, is a very light-hearted, adventurous theme that plays for both the Midas River Course and near the end of the game, when you ride up to battle Exor.

But, like I said, most of the stages and areas have their own unique leitmotifs. The Mushroom Kingdom has a theme called "Hello, Happy Kingdom," which is this peaceful, dignified, regal-sounding tune that perfectly captures the kingdom's atmosphere. Tadpole Pond initially has a simple, whistling sort of tune, which is maintained over in Melody Bay, but after you give Frogfucius the Cricket Pie Mallow got for him, it becomes very upbeat and joyful. Once you've liberated Rose Town from Smithy's forces, another very happy and optimistic theme plays. The Forest Maze has a theme called "Beware of Forest Mushrooms," which has a mysterious, somewhat eerie feel to it, and captures the feeling of wandering through a strange forest. Yo'ster Isle's theme is also upbeat and happy, as you might expect, and has a tropical feel about it. When you participate in the Mushroom Derby, you get a whistling theme that fits with the notion of a small race. Moleville's theme has a more rustic feel to go along with its upbeat nature, while the Moleville Mountain track is not only fast-paced but even more country-oriented, with its main part being played on what sounds like a fiddle. Booster Tower has two different themes: on the lower levels when you first enter, it has a track that sounds like what you would hear in a waiting room of some kind of business, but after you've met Booster and are fighting your way up his tower, you suddenly get this really harsh-sounding, percussive-heavy theme, which also has a bit of a mischievous vibe to it. Booster Hill has a racing theme similar to the Mushroom Derby, only faster and energetic, as well as more silly-sounding. Marrymore has a very lovely and joyous leitmotif, getting across how this place is meant to be somewhere that people can come to have a nice wedding and honeymoon. Star Hill's theme is a very mystical, twinkling one, with just a hint of mystery to it. The Sunken Ship, on the other hand, has the spookiest piece of music in the entire game: a low-key but really eerie theme that fits well with the strange and creepy things you come across in there. Like Rose Way, once you've saved Seaside Town from Smithy, you get an upbeat, jaunty leitmotif, this one with an expected nautical feel. Monstro Town has a rather odd-sounding theme, kind of fitting for a place inhabited by reformed enemies.

While Nimbus Land's overworld exterior has a wondrous and magical theme, when the castle is under Valentina's rule, the music inside has a sinister organ sound to it. Also, in this one moment there where you have to avoid Dodo, the music turns into this hilarious, grumpy piece, accentuating how irked and pissed off he is at that moment. Barrel Volcano has one of the coolest pieces of music in the game: a low, constant electronic beat that also has an undeniable feel of menace about it. Both of the times you go through Bowser's Keep, there's this constant, foreboding theme that plays throughout. Just as, if not cooler than, the Barrel Volcano theme is the one for the initial Gate area of the final stage, leading to Smithy's Factory, which has this catchy, mechanical-sounding beat to it and fits the location's perfectly. But probably my favorite theme from the entire soundtrack is what you hear during the first phase of the final battle with Smithy: this really awesome, electronic, percussive piece that gets across how this is an epic battle that will determine the fate of the world. Unfortunately, during the second phase, the music changes to something that I think was meant to sound more horrific, give how Smithy is constantly shape-shifting throughout the fight, and I think they should've switched the themes around, given how more epic that first one sounds. Once you've defeated Smithy and gotten all the Star Pieces, you get this theme that starts out as a replay of the theme heard when Geno first possessed the doll, as well as whenever you collected a Star Piece, then transitions into an even more lovely theme when you watch the final cutscenes, getting across how peace has been restored and everyone is happy once more (for the most part). And finally, during the end credits parade, you get a beautiful, sweeping symphony that's made up of different parts of the score.

As expected, some of Koji Kondo's classic themes are used here, albeit in ways you might not expect. Most obviously, the Super Mario Bros. theme is heard for the small area called Mario's Pad following the game's opening, as well as during the game's very last screen, after the ending credits have rolled. However, another, less apparent, arrangement is "Let's Try!" on the game file select screen (which also involves a version of a theme from VS. Super Mario Bros.). Also, the Underground theme plays in the Pipe Vault and when you pursue the Axem Rangers in Barrel Volcano, the Invincibility theme is heard whenever you get one of those stars, and the Super Mario World theme can be heard in a soft, child-like version when Mario plays with the little kid named Gaz in Rose Town. The music from the first level of Super Mario Bros. 3 is heard during the first part of the opening cutscene, as are some other themes from that game, like "King of the Koopas" during the opening fight with Bowser and when you return to Bowser's Keep near the end, and the Slot and Memory Game themes for certain mini-games. But, most unexpectedly, there are rearrangements of some of Nobuo Uematsu's Final Fantasy themes heard here, specifically for an optional boss battle about halfway through the game.

Prologue 

The game starts up with the same cutscene that you get at the start of the intro, with Princess Toadstool hanging around outside Mario's house, when Bowser suddenly appears in a Koopa Clown Car, swoops in, and flies off with her. She screams for help and Mario comes outside, sees that she's nowhere to be found, and rushes to the rescue. It cuts to an exterior of Bowser's Keep, as he flies inside with the princess, while Mario walks across the drawbridge and then rushes through the main door, which opens by itself.

Now, you take control of Mario and this first stage is pretty straightforward, as you just make your way through the castle, going from one room to the next, and battling Terrapins as you need to. You can avoid most of them, save for a pair guarding the door at the end of the second room (in the battle, there's actually four of them), but, like I said earlier, these guys are total pushovers either way. After that, you cross a bridge spanning a pool of lava, with Sparkies jumping out of it, and the bridge gives out when you reach the

opposite end. The last room is the throne room, where you find Bowser standing atop a chandelier, with the princess tied up and hanging by a rope. Mario jumps onto another chandelier across from Bowser's and the fight starts. There's not much to this, as you and Bowser just trade shots, until the princess tells you to aim for the Kinklink Chomp that's holding up his chandelier. You can take that down with two Jump attacks, and the chandelier will plummet down with Bowser. However, as he falls, he throws a couple of hammers at the Kinklink holding up Mario's

chandelier, sending it hurtling down as well. The scene plays out with Mario and Bowser having one last scuffle, with Mario dodging a swipe from his claws and managing to jump back up to the Kinklink that was holding his chandelier. But, before Mario can help the princess, the castle starts shaking and it cuts to outside, as you see a cutscene of the giant sword, Exor, slicing through the clouds, with Star Pieces circling around him, before he jams his blade down into the center of the castle. The title comes up above the top of the screen (missing the subtitle, however), and the Star Pieces proceed to drift down to Earth.

Mushroom Kingdom 

Mario's Pad: Mario is blown out of the castle and sent flying all the way back to his house, the Pipe House, where Toad is waiting outside. He falls through the house's pipe-shaped chimney and Toad rushes inside to find him hanging on the wall beside his bed, next to a spare outfit. Toad proves to be a little smartass, as he remarks, "Hey, Mario! Lots of people use something called a “door” to go in and out of their houses..." He goes back out after saying he came to fetch the princess, and Mario jumps off the 

wall, where you regain control. The Pipe House also serves as the first place where you can rest in order to restore your HP and FP; you just have to turn off the mushroom light across from the bed to do so. Also, the game's first Save Block is right outside. When you talk with Toad out there and he realizes that the princess was kidnapped by Bowser again, he asks you to go back to the castle and save her. Going down the short path at the bottom of the screen, you have the option to go back to Bowser's Keep on the Map

Screen. But when you do, you get another cutscene, where Mario doesn't even make through the main door this time. He stops at the sight of Exor, who declares that the castle is now controlled by the Smithy Gang and destroys the bridge, forcing Mario to run back. Following a short moment where he looks at the castle from a distant hill, he walks back to the Map Screen. This spot is now called Vista Hill and, for the rest of the game, if you return to there, all you'll be able to do is helplessly look out at the castle. You return back to the Pipe House (or Mario's Pad, as

it's called on the Map Screen) and find Toad inside. You go in, talk to him, and Mario, through pantomime, tells him that the bridge is out. Toad says they must go to the Mushroom Kingdom and inform the Chancellor, and rushes ahead. But, when you try to follow him out of the house and to the end of the path, he quickly comes back and runs right into you. He notes that doing so took out some HP and gives you a Mushroom, as well as offers a tutorial on how to use Items on the Menu Screen. After that, he then wonders why he came rushing back, and remembers

when a Goomba suddenly appears behind him. He came to warn you that Mushroom Way is crawling with monsters and offers to teach you how to battle, specifically how to perform Timed Hits. Once that's done, he gives you three Mushrooms and heads on to the kingdom, while you follow.

Mushroom Way: Goombas and Sky Troopas roam the first winding section of Mushroom Way, and there are some Treasure Boxes filled with Coins as well. You also find that Toad has gotten himself cornered by a Goomba, one of several times he's in need of rescuing. It's not optional for you to save him each time, as he'll show up in the Mushroom Kingdom regardless, but if you do, he'll give you an Item; in this case, it's a Honey Syrup. The second section has three mounds that you can reach with a Spinning

Flower in the center of them, after you get rid of the Goomba that's standing atop it. The mound on the left has a Treasure Box containing a Flower Tab, while the one on the right has a Sky Troopa that, if you saved him earlier, is now carrying Toad. When you save him this time, he gives you another Flower Tab. This section also has some Goombas who will come charging at you out of nowhere, like when you activate this Treasure Box containing a Mushroom you find before the path to the next section. Speaking 

of which, the third section is where a couple of Lakitus are dropping some Spikeys onto another path that has some twists and turns about it. Like the Goombas in the previous section, some of them come rushing out at you when you least expect it. Guarding the path leading to the actual Mushroom Kingdom is the game's first boss: a Hammer Brother, who is, again, holding Toad hostage if you've saved him before. When you challenge him to a fight, you actually fight both him and his brother. It's best not to take them on until you've reached at least Level 2 

(which you will if you fight just about every enemy you come across in the stage), as they each have 50 HP and, obviously, attack by whacking you with their hammers. They have a special move called Hammer Time which, despite its corny and badly dated name, does twice the normal amount of damage. You can easily take one Brother out with just two Jumps but, since the other increases his Defense with Valor Up afterward, you won't be able to take him down so easily (and odds are you won't have enough FP left for a third Jump on him). But, compared to the boss

battles down the road, this one is a cakewalk. Moreover, you not only get a Flower Jar for defeating the Hammer Brothers, but also one of their Hammers, which you can equip as your first weapon.

Mushroom Kingdom (1): When you first arrive here, if you walk around and talk to people before going to the castle, you come meet some interesting characters. There's one guy who's shocked to learn that Bowser has kidnapped Princess Toadstool yet again; a woman standing near the edge of a short drop near the Inn who says, "Hey, Mario! Look what you're standin' in!", and when you jump in response, she says, "Ha! Gotcha!"; and a hyperactive kid running around in a yard in the lower right-hand corner of the screen who

says, "Mario! Let's say you and I get hitched in a few years, okay? Just... give me time to grow into my mother's wedding dress." Also here are Raz and Raini, a couple who plan on going to Marrymore to get married soon. If you go into the Item Shop to the right of the Inn, you'll find that you can go down into the basement. There, you meet an elderly woman who, if you talk to her, instructs you to stand in front of her and jump. When you do, you uncover the first hidden Treasure Box, which contains a Flower Tab.

She proceeds to tell you that there are many hidden treasures found throughout the world and you can use Mario's jumping ability to find them. In fact, there's another one in that very basement, in the corner across from the stairs. You have to wait until she wanders over there, then jump on top of her head in order to reach it; it holds just another Flower Tab, though. Meanwhile, at the Inn, there's a kid in the corner, across from the Save Block in there, playing a GameBoy who will eventually sell you the mini-game called Beetle Mania that I mentioned earlier. For now, though, if you try to talk to him, he'll just tell you to leave him alone. 

When you walk through the castle's main door, you meet Toad and he goes to tell the Chancellor that you've arrived. And when he does, you have one chance to find a hidden Treasure Box in this room. You have to jump on his head as he walks towards the door and then jump on top of the archway above it to reach a box containing a Frog Coin. If you save your progress at the Inn before attempting this, you can reload your save file and try again if you miss (in the Switch version, they made it to where you can reach

this box at any time). After that, you follow after Toad into the throne room, where Mario tells the Chancellor what happened to Princess Toadstool and how the drawbridge to Bowser's Keep is down. He charges you with finding her, and then, there are a couple of times where Mario tries to leave, only for the Chancellor to stop him, causing him to fall. The first time, it's to give you a Map, and the second time (which causes Mario to tumble down the stairs towards the door), he tells you to go down to the 

cellar. The cellar is found off to the right of the room just beyond the castle's main door, right across from another door that leads to the guest room. There's a Mushroom guy standing guard here who lets you in, allowing you access to three Treasure Boxes, which contain a Mushroom, a Flower Tab, and a 10-Gold Coin. On the other side of the main hall is a door leading up to the princess' bedroom, where you find Grandma, who's actually just a chambermaid and who, like everyone else, is worried about her. Also, if 

you investigate a spot between the fireplace and a blue chair in the back of the room, you find an unspecified item called Toadstool's ???. Whatever it is, Granny rushes over as soon as you find it, scolding you and offering a Mushroom in exchange. In any case, when you exit the castle, you see Mallow for the first time, as he chases after Croco. Failing to catch him, he gets emotional and starts crying, which causes it to start pouring rain. It keeps on pouring until you talk to him, and he explains what happened. Upon learning that you're Mario, he asks you to help

him catch Croco (if you turn him down, he starts crying again, resuming the downpour). When he joins you, it's best you go to the shop to buy him some pants. When you talk with the manager, Mallow tells him that his Coin was stolen, meaning they can't make the trade they were planning. However, when he hears that Mario is going to help, the manager gives you a Pick Me Up to help. When you leave, you come across a guard near the edge of the kingdom. He says that he saw Croco, when the thief himself shows up, rushing past you after having stolen something from someone else.

Bandit's Way: As soon as you start this stage up, you come across Croco, who mocks Mallow and runs off. This first section is filled with Goombas and Spikeys, which you can pretty easily avoid, as well as a Save Block. The second section, like in Mushroom Way, is full of dirt mounds and you have to use Spinning Flowers in order to navigate around them. Again, you immediately come across Croco, who runs for it, hopping across the first mound like a frog. In the middle of this section, beyond the first mound, are

two floating tiles which you have to use to make it over to the second. When you jump on one tile, the other swings around in front of it, and so on. There are some K-9s roaming in the center as well, and before you continue on, you can use a Spinning Flower to the right of the second mound to reach a hidden Treasure Box, which contains the always useful Kerokero Cola. In the third section, you continue pursuing Croco up and around various obstacles, including more Goombas and Spikeys. In

the upper right-hand corner of this section is a Treasure Box guarded by a K-9 that contains a Mushroom. The fourth section starts with Croco attempting to use another pair of floating tiles to get a Treasure Box, but decides it's not worth it when he sees you and runs off. These tiles work the same way as those from before, only they move slower, and can also go in any direction. This box contains an Invincibility Star, which you can use to wipe out the K-9s in this section; in fact, grabbing it brings many more out of the woodwork, allowing you to

potentially level up both Mario and Mallow if you haven't already. Another Treasure Box found around here contains a Flower Tab. The fifth and final section is a dead end that's full of Sky Troopas and Goombas that pop out at you, as well as a Treasure Box housing a Mushroom. When he sees you, Croco runs off to "hide." While he's not hard to find at all, you have to sneak up behind him and take him by surprise three times in order to continue on; if he sees you, he'll mock you and run off to another hiding spot, (if he says you couldn't chase down a pumpkin, or turns

around and runs off without saying anything, that means you messed up). When you catch him three times, Mallow tells Croco to stop running and give him back his Coin. He feigns like he's going to do it, only to attack instead, leading into the game's second boss battle.

In this first battle with him, Croco is the first truly challenging opponent in the game, and it's best that you be at Level 4. He has 320 HP, 25 on both Attack and Defense, and a pretty potent Magic Attack at 30. He attacks by rushing at one party member and by throwing bombs, the latter of which can do some damage. However, he's vulnerable to fire, and the first time you use Mario's Fire Orb attack on him, he wastes a turn trying to put out a fire on his tail. The best strategy is to hit him with that, throw in some

basic attacks (though they don't do much to him), and use other Items and Mallow's HP Rain special move to heal yourself as needed. What's kind of annoying is that, when Croco's health gets really low, he uses a Weird Mushroom, which restores 60 of his HP. But still, it only takes another couple of Fire Orbs and some regular attacks to bring him down. When you've won, Mallow jumps up and demands Croco give him back his Frog Coin, then punches him, literally knocking the Coin out of him. Enraged, Croco rams into Mallow and decides to run for it. Not only do you

regain the Coin but, after the battle, you also get a Flower Tab and find the wallet that Croco stole. And, just so you don't have to fight your way back through Bandit's Way, a Warp Trampoline drops down, allowing you to instantly jump back to the first section. You land beside the Save Block, and it's a good idea to use it because of what's coming up next.

Mushroom Kingdom (2): Upon returning to the Mushroom Kingdom, you find it dark and overrun with Shysters, who are terrorizing the civilians. This is happening both outside and inside and, while it's not mandatory, if you save the civilians, some will give you Items (plus, you can also potentially level up for the next boss battle). For instance, if you save the guard at the exit to the kingdom, he gives you ten Coins, while the man being chased in circles in the yard across from the Item Shop, who turns out to be

the stolen wallet's owner, gives you a Flower Tab for returning it. Speaking of the shop, if you go inside, you'll find the manager quaking in fear in the corner, having left a note to simply leave the money for whatever you buy (if you talk to him, he'll ask how you could possibly think about shopping with all this going on). The Inn, however, is still operating normally, so you can catch some Zs and restore your stats if you need to. You don't get anything for "saving" the woman standing near the Inn (in fact, she

plays that same trick on you when you talk to her afterward), as she's actually in awe of one Shyster's jumping ability. The same goes for battling a couple of Shysters outside of Raz and Raini's house (the latter of whom is complaining about how they can't head off to Marrymore with this going on). In the house just down the path from Mushroom Castle, the family in there is being terrorized by some Shysters who are bouncing around in their living room/kitchen, while upstairs, the little kid, who earlier was practicing to jump as high as Mario, is impressed by

another's jumping abilities. After you get rid of the Shysters down below, the father runs upstairs to check on his son, but when you follow him up there, he's cowering in the corner, too scared to save his own kid! Once you get rid of those last couple of Shysters, you get a Flower Tab as a reward. Finally, there's an endless deluge of Shysters bouncing out of the castle's main door, so it's no question where you have to go after saving everyone.

The castle's interior is overrun, with Toad getting chased through the main hall when you enter. In the section to the right, another Toad is surrounded and when you defeat those Shysters, he says the vault guard ran into the next room. Sure enough, he's in the guest room, hiding in a corner, and when you talk with him, he gives you a Wake Up Pin. The Treasure Boxes in the basement happen to have been replenished, which could be useful. Shysters are also found on the stairs leading up to the princess' room

and right outside its door, and if you rescue Toad in the main hall, you'll have to clear the way for him when he tries to get up to the room (he'll reward you with a Flower Tab). The two Shysters right outside the room actually attack you when you try to go through the door, and when you manage to enter the room, you find that some of the castle's staff have taken cover inside. You can use a Save Block in there, and while Grandma won't allow you to sleep in the princess' bed, she will top off your stats herself. You 

learn that the Chancellor is stuck in the throne room, so you know where you need to go. Once you enter the throne room, you find it's not only filled with Shysters, two of whom try to bounce on your head when you get between them (and proceed to knock into each other), but you also meet Mack, the first of Smithy's commanders, while the Chancellor is over in the corner, scared to death. Mack tells the Shysters that Mario and Mallow are their to spoil their fun, leading into the battle. (In the original Super NES version, there's a glitch where you can actually skip

the battle by jumping and running across the row of Shysters on the left side of the throne room's path, and then speaking with the Chancellor. Mack and the Shysters are still present, but the Chancellor and the Toads in the following scene act as if they're gone.)

Mack has 480 HP, and Attack, Defense, and Magic Defense that are all in the 20's, but his Magic Attack is only 15. He also initially fights with four Shysters who act as bodyguards. All of these enemies are vulnerable against Mallow's Thunderbolt attack, which can easily take out the bodyguards with a Timed Hit, as well as stun Mack himself. However, if you don't defeat them immediately, Mack jumps away and doesn't return until they've been dealt with. He attacks with both physical hits and the special attacks

Flame and Flame Wall, and he continually summons new Shysters throughout the battle until he's defeated. If you've reached Level 5, he's actually not that hard, and will go down easily if you keep hitting him with Thunderbolt and Mario's normal attacks. (If you defeat him when some Shysters are onscreen, you do have to beat them as well in order to truly win the battle.) Once you do, you collect the first Star Piece, while a pair of Shysters who didn't take part in the battle escape to warn Smithy about how strong Mario is. You then talk to the Chancellor, who realizes that

everything's fine, and all of his retainers come running in. That's when Mallow suggests they go to Tadpole Pond to speak with his "grandfather," Frogfucius, whom he says knows everything. On the way out, if you stop at the Item Shop, Mallow, having reclaimed his Frog Coin, is able to finish his errand and get a Cricket Pie for his grandfather.

Pond To Pipes

Kero Sewers: While the stage starts off innocuously enough, with an above ground portion set to the jaunty "Danger Abounds on the Journey" theme, it switches to the creepy "Monsters Abound in the Dungeon" once you go down the pipe and enter the sewers. Kero Sewers is a non-linear, maze-like stage, and it's easy to find yourself going around in circles if you don't know what you're doing. Since the first room has a Save Block, it's a good idea to use it before you begin exploring. On the opposite end of

the room is a pipe that you can reach by swimming to it (it doesn't come up often but Mario is able to swim in this game), and on the wall to the pipe's left is a note that tells you how to go down a pipe... even though you wouldn't be able to read it if you hadn't already gone down the pipe on the surface. In any case, said pipe leads to a room with another pipe down several stone steps below. This one leads to a path that runs along the bottom of a raised structure, and if you follow it, you find yet another pipe, which 

takes you to the second level of a similar but completely different structure. Over to the right, on the ground below (which you can reach via another pipe elsewhere) is the first Treasure Box enemy, Pandorite, and defeating him grants you a Flower Jar and a Trueform Pin. To the left, you work your way up to the top of the structure, dodging Rat Funks that come charging out of some gaps in the wall and also down the steps. Atop the structure, near its right edge, is another pipe, which takes you to the top of that 

first structure. You come out right next to a Treasure Box containing an Invincibility Star, allowing you to take out a group of Rat Funks and a couple of Big Boos over to the pipe's left. On the structure's left edge is a pipe that leads to a spot deeper in the sewers where you can either drop down into the water (there are Gobies in there, and in some spots, they jump out of the water at you) or run along a narrow path on the upper left part of the screen, watching out for Rat Funks patrolling it. At the end is a pipe that leads to another spot by the water, with a pipe atop some 

steps to your left and another on a lone platform to your right, as well as more Rat Funks roaming about. That lone pipe is where you want to go, as it leads to a chamber with both a Warp Trampoline that takes you to the beginning of the stage and a Switch, which drains the water (there are also some Boos in here that you have to get around). Taking the trampoline back to the beginning after hitting the Switch, you can just run down the drained canal, past the flopping Gobies, all the way to the room where you used the pipe, 

which contains another pipe in the lower left corner (there's also a pipe up and to the left, which takes you to the base of the structure where Pandorite was). Taking it transports you to a level above the spot with the Warp Trampoline and the Switch. There's a Treasure Box hovering above one of the arches here, but you can't reach it, nor can you reach the pipe above the Save Block; in fact, you won't be able to get at it until quite a bit later on. For now, you just have to worry about taking the pipe to the right of the Save Block, which takes you to this stage's boss, Belome.

Belome is a yellow, four-eyed, dog-like creature with a long, red tongue and an insatiable appetite. He has 500 HP, 30 Attack and 25 Defense, but only 15 on Magic Attack and 20 on Magic Defense. He attacks by licking you with his tongue, using S'crow Funk and Sleep Sauce, and by actually eating Mallow! You can make him cough Mallow up by continuing to attack him, and it actually doesn't damage him that much, but if Mario drops while Mallow is in Belome's stomach, you get Game Over. Like Mack, Belome is

vulnerable against Mallow's Thunderbolt attack, and it's best that you've reached at least Level 7 before facing him for maximum efficiency. But, like the previous couple of bosses, he can be tricky but not too difficult overall. You know you've won when he tells you, "If you defeat me, you STILL won't beat me! Beware the flood!", and you realize what he means in the following cutscene. The gate that was behind him raises up and a huge rush of water comes in, as Mario and Mallow futilely try to close the gate by hitting a Switch on the floor.

Midas River: You start out by tumbling down the falls, as Toad comes onscreen and offers instructions on how to play this stage. In the first part, you basically just try to collect as many regular Coins and Frog Coins on your way down. Not only can you move back and forth, but you can use the "B" button to briefly swim against the current in order to try to get some Coins you missed. There are forks in the path as well, and some have more Coins than others, giving you an incentive to replay this course 

numerous time. There are also spots where you go through tunnels filled with enemies on the shore, but they don't attack you, for the most part; in fact, they're more busy fighting each other. There are a couple of tunnels where they unintentionally give you a Flower Tab, such as in one where they can be seen fighting over the Flower, carrying it throughout the tunnel as you're swept downstream, and accidentally flinging it onto you near the end. Another tunnel houses a Frog Coin you can get, but there's another tunnel a Jawful 

may cause you to lose some of your Coins. You exit all of these tunnels through spots just off the main course, with Trampolines bouncing you back onto it. When you reach the end of the falls, you find yourself riding atop a barrel across a river. Here, the goal is to jump to get the Coins floating in midair, while making sure to avoid fish that jump up out of the water, as hitting one will cause you to lose Coins (avoiding them is tougher than it seems, as they deliberately time their jumps to hit you). Also, hitting another barrel causes you to change course, i.e. move 

to another side of the waterway. In other words, it's just another way of forcing you to pick between two different paths and, like with the falls, there are more Coins on some paths than others (usually, the bottom ones). At the end of the course, a Mushroom guy offers you a chance to try it again for 30 Coins, saying he'll give you a Frog Coin for 60 regular ones you collect. In fact, the more Coins you manage to snag on the river, the lower the price for a Frog Coin will be, and if you manage to get 100 on the falls and river combined (which is quite a feat), you can actually get five as a bonus. He also gives you a NokNok Shell as a prize the first time you complete the course.

Tadpole Pond: This stage serves as a breather, as well as a way to get information and useful Items. The first time you come here, it's also an exposition dump. Upon arriving, there's a spot on the shore where you stand in order to make a tadpole pop up, and Mallow introduces you to all of them in the pond (you have to demonstrate your jumping ability to prove to them that you are who Mallow claims; be prepared to do this quite a few times). Frogfucius then appears, "floating" above the pond (he's actually got 

a Lakitu suspending him by his fishing pole), and after introducing himself, goes back over to his little island in the pond. He has the tadpoles act like makeshift stepping stones so you can make your way over there and speak with him. He tells Mario that Princess Toadstool is no longer at Bowser's Keep but, rather, was blown into the distance, as were both Mario and even Bowser, by the force of Smithy's arrival. He's also told that he must defeat Smithy and his minions, as they're wreaking havoc across the land. Most significantly, he breaks it to Mallow that 

he's not really a tadpole, that he adopted him as his grandson after he found him in a basket floating down the falls. He insists that Mallow join Mario on his quest in order to find his real parents, instructing them to head to Rose Town. As somber as the mood is at the moment, you can cheer Frogfucius up by giving him the Cricket Pie that Mallow got in the Mushroom Kingdom, and he, in turn, gives you the Froggie Stick for Mallow to use as a weapon. You can return here periodically across the game for more pointers from Frogfucius (though, because I had the Player's Guide, I almost never did), as well as other reasons.

Over to the left of the main pond is a spot where two tadpoles operate two different shops. One is the Frog Coin Emporium, where you use said Coins to buy helpful Items like Crystalline, Power Blast, Energizer, Bracer, and such. The other is the Juice Bar, which takes regular Coins and sells Items like Froggie Drinks, Elixirs, Megalixirs, and Kerokero Colas. However, you need a membership card in order to buy much of their inventory; otherwise, you'll only have access to a Froggie Drink. That's where Melody 

Bay, off to the right, comes in. Here, the composer, Toadofsky, is trying to come up with a new piece of music but is having trouble (according to the Player's Guide, "If he doesn't come up with some dough soon, he'll have to submit himself to the ultimate indignity: writing music for video games starring a hedgehog. Zounds!"). You can help give him some inspiration by playing music in the bay itself, which looks like a music staff. Tadpoles swim back and forth across the staff, and when you jump onto one, it plays a type of

musical note, depending on its position. Toadofsky himself explains how the notes work, running, from top to bottom, as Mi, Re, Do, Ti, La, So, and Fa. To get an idea of what you need to play, a tadpole in a corner right before you enter the bay will tell you his current favorite song and how it goes. In this first instance, it's the song, Frogfucius' Suite #19, and if you play it correctly, Toadofsky rewards you with an Alto Card. Later on, you can return and play two other songs: Moleville Blues and the Monstro Town Star's Song. Toadofsky will, in turn, reward you with

a Tenor and Soprano Card, respectively. Once you've played all three songs, he asks you to compose an ending, which can be anything you want. If you're into music and composing, this probably isn't hard, but if you're like me and don't know anything about the mechanics of music (I had music class in high school, but that was a long time ago), this can be rather confusing. Fortunately for me, the Player's Guide had graphs showing where the tadpoles should be on the staff for the songs. But even then, it can be tricky, as they're constantly moving, and you can end up playing the wrong note if you don't jump at the right moment.

Rose Way: While not quite as straightforward as Mushroom Way and Bandit's Way, this stage is still not as complex as Kero Sewers. The first section is this big, wide marsh, and you have to use these yellow platforms to get across it, as well as to reach the little islands that have Mushrooms, Flower Tabs, and Treasure Boxes. Each platform has its own paths  it takes back and forth and, sometimes, they either float to spots you don't expect them to or won't go to spots you would; in short, you have to make several

trips across the marsh to get everything. Getting the Coins that float in midair can be tricky, and there are Starslaps that will come at you to pull you into a fight. In the upper left-hand corner of this section is a path that leads to a spot where two Shy Guys are riding some platforms which constantly swing back and forth. When you get rid of them, you can use the platforms to reach a Treasure Box housing a Frog Coin... eventually. This is one of those spots where the isometric angle really makes it hard to coordinate

your jumps in the right direction. In the upper right-hand corner of the marsh is a path that leads to a section that loops back around towards it, but it takes you back out in a spot where you can get to some platforms you couldn't reach before. Besides some Crooks hiding in the bushes here, there's also a Lakitu who, for a change, is dropping Shy Guys. He drops four in all, and if you manage to death them (as well as the Starslaps that accompany them in battle), he'll actually reward you with a Mushroom. The main path is found on the lower right-hand corner of the marsh,

and goes through a spot where Shy Guys are sitting atop Treasure Boxes. Said boxes contain Coins and various Items, and when you hit them from below, you knock the Shy Guys off, after which they attempt to fight you. In the last spot before you head on to Rose Town, you come across Bowser, who's leading an army made up of five Goombas, Terrapins, and Magikoopas each, and planning to take back his castle. After they move out, you can continue on.

Rose Town: The minute you enter the town, you see an arrow come down and hit a guy on the top of the head, paralyzing him. The same thing happens to a woman off to the left, in front of the Inn, after you talk to her and she mentions how these arrows have been showering the town since a "shooting star" fell into the nearby forest. If you walk around town, you find that various other people have also been frozen in place. The main story continues when you first go into the Inn and find the innkeeper's son, Gaz, playing

with Mario, Princess Toadstool, and Bowser action figures, as well as a doll he calls Geno. When he finally notices you and informs his mother, he's completely starstruck, and even if you say yes when he asks if you're really Mario, you have to jump in order to convince him. He then asks Mario to play with him and, being a good guy, he happily obliges. Things are fine, until Gaz hits Mario with Geno's Shooting Star attack and he gets knocked unconscious! After Mario passes out, you get a

cutscene where, in the middle of the night, the being from Star Road appears, possesses Geno, grows to life-size, and, after getting coordinated in this new body, walks out the door (he actually contemplates possessing one of the other dolls; imagine how that might've gone!). Mario then wakes up in an upstairs bedroom with a Save Block (this is also where you find Link sleeping later on), and when you go downstairs, Gaz is going on about seeing Geno walk off into the forest. Naturally, his mom doesn't believe

him, and while they argue, you can just go on about your business. At the Item Shop, you can enter through the chimney in order to reach a Treasure Box containing a Flower Tab (there's also a hidden one containing a Frog Coin on the opposite side of the room from it), and buy the normal Items you've grown accustomed to, as well as a Thick Shirt and Thick Pants as armor, and various accessories like Jump Shoes, Antidote Pins, Wake Up Pins, Trueform Pins, and Fearless Pins. And in the upper left-hand

corner of the town is a house on a hill that the owner can't reach because his son has deactivated the stairs. You have to jump off his head to get to it and, inside, you find two Treasure Boxes, each containing a Flower Tab... if you immediately collect them, that is. Upstairs, you find the guy's son and the Switch that activates the stairs (there's also an invisible Treasure Box with a Frog Coin above the kid's bed). Once the man is able to reach his house again, he asks you about his treasures, and you can either say they're alright or they're not; if you took them, you can then 

either come clean or continue denying you touched them. And if you didn't touch them beforehand, they'll now contain Coins when you reenter the house. Either way, the man will tell you a secret about the Forest Maze, but won't say what it is exactly.

Forest Maze: Initially, this stage doesn't quite live up to its name, as you just move from one screen to the next. After the first one, where you find one of the many wild Mushrooms growing on the ground (as well as a hidden Treasure Box containing a Kerokero Cola), you come to a spot where a Wiggler goes down a hollow tree stump. You can use the stump like a pipe to enter a short, underground tunnel, which is filled with Rat Funks and the living Mushrooms called Amenitas. At the end is a Trampoline that 

takes you back to the surface, out through another stump (to its left is another hidden Treasure Box, containing a Frog Coin), and have to get around a Buzzer to continue on. The next screen is a space that has seven  stumps, six of which are lined up in pairs, with Wigglers crawling in and out of them. Most of the latter take you to the same, underground chamber, which is filled with two Buzzers and three Amenitas, as well as a hidden Treasure Box containing a Flower Tab. Another takes you to a chamber with a hidden

box, but it turns out to be empty, and when you open it, a caption says, "You missed!", prompting Mario to face-plant. The stump on the other end of this screen is where you need to go. In the cavern below, you find a Wiggler in the corner, snoozing away (behind him is another hidden box, containing another Kerokero Cola). If you jump on his back, however, he'll angrily launch you upwards and back out through the stump, but now, there's a path behind it. This path leads to another lone stump, which takes you to another underground tunnel, filled with Rat Funks and

Amenitas (as well as another snoozing Wiggler, whom you can try to get a Frog Coin from by jumping on him). However, this tunnel is longer, taking up two screens, and the second screen has a brief split in the path. When you exit here, you emerge at a spot with a Save Block, and beyond here is where it truly becomes a maze.

You come to a spot with four different paths that can easily have you going around in circles (whenever you go the wrong way, you end up back at the maze's first screen), and each screen is filled with Buzzers and Amenitas. The guy in Rose Town told you that, when you come to this spot, to go left, left, straight, and right but, again, the isometric angle makes it tough. If you go left on the first screen of the maze, you'll just end up back at the Save Block, and "straight" could mean any direction, depending on

where you're standing. You have to account for it from Mario's POV, taking the path at the bottom of the screen for "left," heading to the one on the left side for "straight," and the one up top for "right," (real fucking simple, isn't it?). If you do it right, you'll find a stump leading down to an underground Treasure Room, with six Treasure Boxes. They contain a Frog Coin, regular Coins, a Mushroom, and a Flower Tab. Once you have all that, in order to reach the next boss, you have to find and follow Geno. You 

sometimes have to walk around the maze a bit to spot him, and when you do, you have to keep up with him as he quickly traverses the paths, while trying to avoid getting dragged into battles as much as possible. Eventually, you lose sight of him, but you can determine where to go from the direction of the arrows. (These arrows can hit you, but their paralysis only works for a split-second.) You come to a spot akin to the one with all those tree stumps, where you find another of Smithy's commanders: Bowyer, who's the one shooting the arrows at Rose Town (and who, 

in his dialogue boxes, talks like Yoda). In the extensive cutscene that follows, Mario attempts to go beat on him, but Mallow stops him, asking, "Who do you think you are, Bruce Lee? You can't just go in there with your fists flying!" One of Bowyer's minions, called Aeros, brings him the second, green Star Piece, only for Geno to jump in and demand he return it. Initially, he tries to fight Bowyer by himself, but soon realizes he's in over his head. Elsewhere, Mario and Mallow are feeding the birds(!), when 

Mario decides to help Geno and rushes to the battle site. Mallow, reluctantly, follows, tripping and falling along the way. Mario jumps into the fray just in time to save Geno from one of Bowyer's arrows, and Mallow soon joins them as well. The two of them have a short conversation right in front of Bowyer, who makes his irritation at being ignored clear. And that's when the fight really begins.

I absolutely hated Bowyer when I was a kid, as I was stuck on him for a long time (and every time I lost, I had to navigate the maze and watch that long cutscene again). In general, he's pretty tough, with 720 HP, 50 Attack and 40 Defense, and 30 Magic Attack and 35 Magic Defense. He attacks with arrows, which can not only cause a serious amount of regular damage but, when he uses the attack "G'nite," he can put you to sleep. He also uses powerful electrical attacks, like Bolt, Lightning Orb, and Static E!, and has no

weaknesses, which really sucks. But, worst of all, after a few turns, he'll start employing a move where he'll disable one of your commands (Basic Attack, Special Attack, and Item) by hitting the corresponding button with an arrow. This will only change when he disables another button in its place, meaning you'll find yourself having to constantly change your tactics and revamp your strategy accordingly. In short, you have to prepare for a long and arduous battle, and it's best not to fight him until

you've reached Level 8. When you beat him, you get a Flower Box, along with a large amount of Coins and Experience Points. In another cutscene, Geno explains the details of what's going on and what's at stake, and then, you collect the second Star Piece. You head back to Rose Town, but one of Bowyer's Aeros was listening in on the conversation and sneaks away to tell Smithy. When you return to the town, everyone is able to move again and the mood is much more cheerful. Going back to the Inn, Gaz, of course, is shocked when he sees Geno again and is able to

show his mother that he wasn't lying (though, she thinks it's someone in a costume). The heroes then try to explain to Gaz what's at stake but he, at first, doesn't really grasp it, much to their chagrin. However, when they do make him understand, he gives Geno the Finger Shot as a weapon.

After you've rescued Princess Toadstool, you'll find a new path has opened up behind the Item Shop, leading to a lone cottage. Inside lives a gardener, who points your attention to the pot he has on his table and tells you about a fabled Seed and Fertilizer he longs to fill it with. You get both of these Items much, much later on, in Bean Valley and Nimbus Land, respectively. When you bring them to the gardener, he gets so excited that his dialogue, as well as the music, start going at a mile a minute, overwhelming Mario to

the point where he keels over once the man is done. After you give him both Items, he plants them in the pot and, after a few seconds, a beanstalk will grow up towards the ceiling and out the cottage's chimney (by this point, you've already seen one that you climb to reach Nimbus Land, so this isn't all that special). Again, the guy gets excited and runs around in circles, yammering on about how famous he's going to be, before stopping and asking the dumb question, "You think it could use a little more fertilizer?" Mario faceplants at that. If you climb the beanstalk, you'll

find it leads up to a cloud with two Treasure Chests. One of them holds a Lazy Shell, Mario's ultimate weapon, while the other is another Lazy Shell, which you'd think would be armor exclusive to Bowser, but can actually be used by any party member.

Pipe Vault: I said earlier that both this and Yo'ster Isle are optional, but the Pipe Vault is filled with some good stuff... along with some not so good stuff. Like at the start of Kero Sewers, you go down a pipe and, this time, find yourself in a spot where you have to jump across a lake of lava while avoiding some Sparkies popping out of it (they do so in an obvious pattern, so it's not too difficult to get around them). You don't take damage if you jump in the lava, but it does make Mario jump back to the start, forcing you

to repeat whatever progress you made. The second part of the stage is a narrow passage with a couple of Goombas patrolling back and forth, a Piranha Plant hiding in a pipe, and a Thwomp who's continuously pounding the steps you have to hop up (he's one of two enemies in here that you can't actually battle). If you're standing on the steps when he comes down, he'll send you tumbling back down to the bottom. In the third section, there are more Piranha Plants to avoid, and the first pipe containing one also leads to a sub-level with Coins beneath a raised path, as well as 

a Frog Coin that you only reach by performing a tricky combination of running and ducking. Floating above the path is a Treasure Box containing a Flower Tab, as well as two hidden ones that each contain a Frog Coin. To get up there, you have to activate a hidden platform back at the start of this screen. 

Going back to the main path, the next-to-last pipe in that third screen leads down to a room where you can play a mini-game called Goomba Thumping. The Mole guy here explains the rules: it's a Whack-A-Mole type of game where Goombas pop up out of the four pipes in the floor and you get points by jumping on them. You get one point for every normal Goomba and three for every golden one, which move faster. But there are also Spikeys that pop up and you lose a point every time you hit one of them. Simple enough

rules, yes, and if you reach a certain amount of points in the allotted time (20 points the first time, and it then increases by two each subsequent time you play), you win prizes like a Flower Tab, a Flower Jar, and Frog Coins. But, during a game, the more points you gather, the faster the enemies get, making it easier to screw up and jump on a Spikey. Also, the hit-detection can be rather wonky, to where you'd swear you jumped on a Goomba, only for it not to register. The real problem, though, is that it's overly precise: 

you have to jump right on top of a Goomba's head, and it won't count if you go even slightly off to the side (and even then, it sometimes doesn't register). The Mole says it's easiest to stand in the middle of the pipes, but you can also stand atop one of them and jump whenever a Goomba pops out. Getting back to the actual level, the last stretch consists of three screens made up of various enemies and obstacles. After avoiding some Goombas and a Piranha Plant in a flowerpot, you come to a screen with a line of flowerpots that house not only Piranha Plants but 

also Chompweeds. Like Thwomps, these guys serve as obstacles rather than actual enemies, and while they don't cause damage if you jump on them, they do cause you to lose your Coins. There's a long row of them in the final section, beneath a platform that you have to ride on in order to cross over them. There's also a floating Treasure Box here that contains Coins, but it's not worth the money you'll lose if you fall on the Chompweeds. The pipe at the end of this section takes you straight to Yo'ster Isle, where there's a waiting Save Block. Once you've completed the Pipe Vault, you can go straight to the island on the Map Screen from then on.

Yo'ster Isle: I haven't the faintest clue as to why they didn't just call this Yoshi's Island, especially since this was just a year after the game with that name. Regardless, the only way to communicate with all the other Yoshis is to find the main green one, ride him, and then speak with them. The main task here is to challenge Boshi, a blue Yoshi wearing sunglasses, to a race, as he's been hogging the track ever since he won a race and will only allow one-on-one races beyween him and someone else. To get him to agree 

to race, you have to talk with a pink Yoshi near where you enter the island, who will give you some Yoshi Cookies in order to entice Boshi. To move during the race, you have to press "A" and "B" in rhythm with the music, something I've always sucked at. Even though Toad gives you a practice run beforehand, I've always found it tricky, mainly because I'm bad at anything rhythm-based. Fortunately, you can also use one of the Yoshi Cookies to make Yoshi quickly sprint ahead a few feet, which is how I ultimately 

won after managing to get a little far with the rhythm. After you beat Boshi, you receive three more Cookies to use in battle. You can also bet Cookies on other races involving the Yoshis, something I've never actually done. And speaking of Cookies, there's an egg in a nest on the left side of the island that will hatch after you've defeated the boss in Marrymore. The hatchling, named "Baby Fat," has a massive appetite for Yoshi Cookies. After feeding him 21, he'll become so fat that he'll have to leave the nest. You can keep feeding him Cookies in order to get Items,

though what you get depends on how many Cookies you feed him. If you give him anywhere from 10 to 19, or 21 to 49, you'll get Bracers, Energizers, and Yoshi Candies, but you're guaranteed a Red Essence if you give him exactly 20, and a Frog Coin with thirty (after that, you have to give him 50 for another one).

Mole Mountains

Moleville: While it's not as obvious with the music, like Rose Towen, Moleville is undergoing a crisis when you first arrive. Right before you got there, two Mole children, Dyna and Mite, went into the coal mines and became trapped after a Star Piece crashed into the mountain. You learn about this when you walk around town and talk to the inhabitants, as they mention how most of the townspeople are up at the mine. Sure enough, most of the actual homes in the back of the town are either completely empty or only

have some kids waiting for their parents to come home. Regardless, you can still spend a night at the Inn and get some Items at the shop, which not only include new armor for everyone, including Geno, but also a Punch Glove for Mario and Cymbals for Mallow (if you didn't get the Finger Shot from Gaz, you can buy it here, as well). Also, this is where the Mushrooms and Syrup upgrade to the more helpful Mid Mushroom and Maple Syrup. When you walk up towards the mines, you again come across Bowser,

who now has no Terrapins and only three Goombas and Magikoopas each at his command. Even though his minions whine about how they've been all but deserted, and that the Smithy Gang are too much for them, Bowser is still intent on reclaiming his castle. Fearing for his reputation, he also hopes that Mario never learns of it, and marches off with his few remaining troops. Outside the mine entrance, there's a Mole woman who tells you that an adult got stuck inside along with the kids, and there's another woman up top trying to drill down into the mines (and getting

absolutely nowhere with it). When you enter the mine, the kids' mother frets until she leaves, while two workers lament that they can't reach the mine's old entrance. Of course, when they spot Mario standing nearby, they ask him for help, allowing him to use them as one big stepping stone to reach the entrance.

The first section of the mines is a passage with some Magmites and Sparkies roaming around, and the second is a chamber where you can jump down to a lower level, which acts as something of a main hub. There's also a random Mushroom guy roaming around here who says he's looking for a rare Item found in the mines (how he got in there is anybody's guess; also, if he's trapped, he's clearly not concerned about it). On the bottom level, a path to the left is just the blocked entrance those two Mole workers at the

entrance were trying to get through, while the one on the right leads deeper into the mines. The section beyond that is a large room with a Trampoline in the center, with more paths in the upper left and right corners. For the moment, they just lead to more rooms filled with enemies, with the one on the right coming to a dead end. If you follow the left path, there's a spot where you come across Pa Mole, who got trapped with the kids and tells you that you need a bomb to blow up this section of wall. The only way 

to proceed is to jump on that Trampoline, which causes you to knock yourself unconscious. While Mario is out cold, Croco appears, along with some Crooks, and he steals all of your Coins and runs off with them. When you chase after him to the right, he manages to blow his way through that dead end and the chase continues. After you run through the next screen, Croco blows through another wall, and the chase loops back around to the tunnels on the left that you've already been to. You have to keep chasing him until you catch him, leading into another battle. This 

time, while he's still weak against fire attacks, and his Magic Defense has dropped a few points, Croco is more formidable as an opponent, with 750 HP, 52 Attack and 50 Defense, and 50 Magic Defense. He still attacks by tossing bombs, at first, but halfway through the fight, he steals your Items and upgrades to an attack called Monster Toss (or "Chomp," even though he doesn't always throw a Chain Chomp), which can do some damage. However, if you've reached Level 8, and keep using Mario's fire attacks, along with regulars, he's actually not that tough. 

Once he's beaten, he runs off and you reclaim your Items, along with a Flower Box and a Bambino Bomb. Naturally, you take the latter back to Pa Mole, who uses it to blow open the wall so you can continue on.

Beyond the wall is a spot where you can either take a high path or a low path. The low path leads to a mine-cart track, but when you reach the end, a cart piloted by a Shy Guy comes flying at you and pushes you all the way back to the previous room (you do get a Frog Coin afterward, though). The high route has some Bob-Ombs wandering around, as well as a Treasure Box housing an Invincibility Star, which you can use to take them out, as well as more in the next room. Taking the higher path here (the lower one stems from

that mine cart section from earlier), you come across a section of tracks guarded by a quartet of Bob-Ombs, beyond which is a Save Block. The next room is where you find the real boss of this stage: Punchinello, a really bizarre guy who, even though he's guarding the third Star Piece, is not affiliated with Smithy. Still, he intends to get famous by killing Mario. That said, if you approach him straight on, he sends you flying back out of the room, forcing you to come at him from the side or behind to start the fight. 

(You might notice that he introduces himself like James Bond. That's because he was originally named "James Bomb," but when they changed the name, probably because they realized how corny it was, they still kept the way he introduces himself) He has 1200 HP, 60 Attack and 42 Defense, and 40 Magic Defense, and fights with basic arm attacks, as well as Sand Storm. He doesn't have any weaknesses, but his Magic Attack is only 22. Notably, he summons various types of bombs whenever you do enough 

damage. He first throws out four tiny Microbombs, which you can easily take out with Mallow's Thunderbolt, and even if they explode in your face, they don't do much damage. After that, he brings in four Bob-Ombs, which, again, Mallow can sily take out. Punchinello also replaces both of these types of bombs if you blow them up before damaging him enough to move onto the next phase. Speaking of which, he soon gets frustrated enough to bring in three big Mezzo Bombs, which take a few Thunderbolts to destroy. Still, while they can do 

some damage, it's nothing you can't deal with. Basically, the strategy here is to just keep chipping away at Punchinello's HP until he decides he's had enough. He claims he's going to use a major final attack, though your characters accuse him of bluffing. To prove he's not, he attempts to summon one last bomb, only for nothing to happen. He keeps stomping the ground, trying to make it come, and when it does, it lands right on top of him, crushing him! As your party tries to figure out what to do, the fuse gets lit

(by a piece of rock falling on it?) and it explodes. Fortunately, all it does is cover them in ash, and they then find the Star Piece (which was literally right above their heads, in the rafters, but they don't see it until it falls down in front of them). 

After you collect the Star (which is good enough to clean off the ash), you can go on to the next room, where you find Dyna and Mite. Dyna is trying to get a mine cart to move and asks you to help her. When she jumps into the cart, you're given the option to read a note tacked to the crates behind her, which are instructions about the controls for the upcoming segment: the Moleville Mountain mine cart challenge. You brake with "A" or "Y," jump with "B," and, upon collecting Mushrooms you find on the track, you use

"X" to get a boost. What the instructions don't tell you is that you can go flying off the tracks if you hit the corners and angles too fast, and while this doesn't damage you, it can slow you down. These spots seem to always come right after you grab a Mushroom, so there's not that many chances for you to truly take advantage of them. There are also a number of hairpin turns where you absolutely have to hit the brake (even if there's more track beyond one of those turns, you still crash if you fly over them), and some gaps in the

tracks that you have to jump over. There are a couple of those aforementioned sharp turns during the first part of the course, as well as several different paths to take, and at the end, you switch to the first of two side-scrolling segments. Both this and the second at the end are more straightforward, as you just ride along, jumping up to grab Coins and Mushrooms, as well as jump onto platforms during the second one. The third section goes back to that Mode 7, 3-D perspective, and there are many more sharp hairpins, including one spot where there are three right in a

row, as well as more gaps in the track. At the end of the fourth section, you go flying off the tracks, and it cuts to Ma and Pa Mole's house, where they're talking about the kids. Ma says, "I just have this odd feeling that they'll be dropping in on us any minute...", and, sure enough, you come crashing through the house's roof in the mine cart. After this, you can return to Moleville and do the mine cart challenge as many times as you want, with Pa Mole allowing you to go straight to it from the outside (you have to pay 10

Coins to do so). In this mini-game, called the Trolley Races, you can get prizes by betting money and setting new records (if you bet 30 Coins and set a new record, you get 50 as a prize).

When you walk out of the house, there's a cutscene where three Snifits are chasing a beetle to take to their boss, Booster. The beetle lands on Mario's head and the Snifits demand he hand it over, saying Booster is now too busy to catch his own beetles because he's, "Keeping the princess from the sky entertained." The beetle then flies away and they take off after it.. If you look around afterward, you find that Moleville becomes far more active, with more potential for deals. There's one Mole who runs a "Swap Shop" out

of her house, where you can exchange Items for points, with 100 allowing you to buy a Fright Bomb, Fire Bomb, or Ice Bomb. The Mushroom guy you saw in the mines is now selling rare Items at the Item Shop. Late in the game, he sells the frying pan that Princess Toadstool can equip as a weapon. And finally, there's a swap quest that starts with a little girl who runs a "pretend store" from behind some crates to the left of Ma and Pa's house. If you go and buy some Fireworks from the Mole in the house close to

the mine, you can trade them for a Shiny Stone, and then, in turn, trade it for a Carbo Cookie from the child in the actual shop. You can give the Cookie to another Mole child sitting in a bucket in the corner all the way to the left from the entrance to Moleville and, in exchange, she'll allow you to use the bucket to warp directly to the Midas River course. If you give her a second Carbo Cookie, she gives you a Frog Coin. Considering that the Fireworks cost a whopping 500 Coins, it may not seem worth the fuss, but the Shiny Stone is the only way to access an optional boss battle later on.

Booster Pass: Fortunately, this stage is much shorter and more straightforward than the adventure in Moleville. The first area, where you climb along these craggy cliffs, has a Lakitu who's continuously dropping Spikesters on the ground. As the Player's Guide says, since you never run out of them (unless you jump at and fight the Lakitu himself), you can use the Spikesters to build up your Experience Points. There are also some Artichokers hiding amongst the plants found growing here and there. There are two

hidden Treasure Boxes in this spot, one of which has a Flower Tab, and the other the very welcome surprise of Rock Candy, and there's also a Frog Coin hidden around a plant near the start. In the second section, there are some Spikesters hiding in pits along the cliff, but if you jump down this nook along its right side, you find a hidden Switch that closes the pits and instantly vanquishes them (each of them gives up a 10-piece Coin when they're crushed). There's a Flower off to the right of this nook as well. 

And finally, while exploring Booster Tower in the next stage, you come upon a Switch where, after you jump on it, you hear a loud crash and some text tells you to check out Booster Pass. It turns out the Switch opened up a secret passage that can be found in the first section. It leads to a spot where you jump over a series of gaps that each contain a Spikey, as well as deal with some Snifits called Apprentices, who challenge you to a fight, hoping they'll get a promotion if they win. You can easily trounce them, and after they're sent packing, you can continue 

through the passage and find three Treasure Boxes, which contain a Flower Tab, a Frog Coin, and Kerokero Cola. If you allow one of the Apprentices to win (which isn't easy, especially at this point, with how leveled up you likely are), you actually don't get a Game Over. You also find that he's been promoted to one of Booster's bodyguards if you revisit the tower afterward.

Booster Tower: This, for me, is one of the most entertaining stages in the game. It starts with a really funny cutscene where Mario comes across Bowser, now all alone, standing right outside the tower, and tearfully lamenting the days when he had his castle, as well as how he would kidnap Princess Toadstool and Mario would come to the rescue. When he turns around and sees you, he quickly tries to save face, saying that if he had the princess at his castle, she'd be crying like a baby. Well, she's not only there, on a 

balcony near the top of the tower, but realizes Mario is down below. She yells for him, and when Bowser (as well as Mario) hears her, he's clearly happy to know where she is. But then, he acts as though as he's going back to his own castle. After he stomps the ground and knocks Mario out of the way, you can try to get through the tower's main door, but it's locked. Bowser then shows back up and, using his large size and strength, knocks it down. That's when he joins the group, under the pretense of making everyone else

honorary members of the Koopa Troop. (Incidentally, if you look over at the door, you can see Booster peeking through the slot, and then around the corner after Bowser knocks it down.) When you walk inside, you find what looks like a waiting room, with several Snifits loitering around. If you talk with the one behind the desk, you end up fighting him after he tells you that Booster is busy at the moment. Though you just fight him by himself, he's actually kind of tough, and can take and dish out some major damage. Once you beat him, you can fight the two Snifits, or

Spookums, off to the right (it's not necessary), or go through the door behind the desk. In this room is a teeter-totter with a Bob-Omb on one end, but you have to wait until later to use it successfully. On the landing atop the steps, there's a line of portraits depicting Booster's family, from the oldest to the youngest. This is something you have to remember for much later in the stage (though, by the time I get to it, I've forgotten the order, and have to cheat with the Player's Guide). The doorway here (from which Booster, again, watches you as you approach) leads to a stairway where Spookums are continuously coming down, and it's best to avoid them as you make your way on up. This will become a running theme as the stage goes on.

When you enter a room with an elevated, toy train track running through it, you meet Booster formally, who goes on about the "girl who fell out of the sky" and that he has no time to play with you. He rides off on his train, and if you try to chase him, he pulls a fast one and runs the other way. Trying to chase after him in that direction causes you to run into and fight the second of his three key Snifits (there's also a Flower Tab hidden in the corner on the room's opposite side). Beyond this is another staircase, and 

here, two steps and the landing each have a pair of Rob-Ombs walking around in circles (the ones in the middle move faster). When you reach the top, Booster runs out from behind a curtain. Before you chase after him, if you take the second path off to the right, you find a ledge with a Treasure Box floating in midair right in front of it. From here, you can jump down onto that teeter-totter with the Bob-Omb, and if you do so correctly (which is tricky, as you can't tell where you have to jump to land on the teeter-totter's 

other end and if you miss, you have to head all the way back up there to try again), the Bob-Omb gets flung up into the air and comes back down with enough force to send you up to the chest. It contains the Masher, Mario's next mallet weapon... which comes back down and whacks him right on the head (can you imagine the concussions he must have by this point?). Getting back to following Booster, you find the Switch that opens the hidden passage in Booster Pass, and beyond that is a room where, if 

you go behind the curtain, you come out as the original NES version of Mario, accompanied by a recreation of the classic 8-bit Super Mario Bros. theme. This is only a cute little Easter egg, and when you try to continue on like this, Mario is hit with the music that indicates time is running out and runs back behind the curtain, returning to normal (you can only do this one time per playthrough). After that, you make your way up some levels, either avoiding or battling Spookums on the blocks you have to hop on to get up there. On the top landing is a Snifit who's 

continually firing Bullet Bills at you, but when you reach him, you have to talk with him in order to fight him. He fires Bullet Bills in battle, too, and these things pack quite a whallop. Beyond that part is another section of steps with some Rob-Ombs (four this time), followed by a Save Block, and then comes the part where you have to remember the order of Booster's family portraits, in order to get the Elder Key, from Booster himself, no less, to unlock the door beside the portraits. If you get it wrong, you get pulled into a fight with a Spookum and an Orb User. 

From left to right, the correct order is 6,5,3,1,2,4, and when you unlock the door, you find a room with a Chain Chomp. She snaps at you if you jump up to her, but then, Bowser manages to calm her down. He tells Mario to look away while he unchains her, and when he does, he's able to equip her as a weapon.

Beyond the portraits is a room which, on the top level, has another teeter-totter, this one with a Thwomp on one side. After taking a Mushroom from a Treasure Box over to the right, you use the Thwomp to launch you up to a spot where three Spookums come gliding down on parachutes. It's possible to fall through the gap while making your way up this section but, fortunately, you end up back at the Thwomp. When you reach the steps at the top, there's a Frog Coin hidden off to the right of the passage

there, and at the top of the steps is a room with a tiled floor. There are Coins on this floor, including several Frog Coins, and a key to unlock the door in the back of the room, but you will, inevitably, get ambushed by Fireballs hiding in the floor. Still, they're not that difficult to fight or defeat, and you often get a chance to play the Yoshi Shell game afterward. You can bypass both the regular Coins and the key, as the locked room merely contains a Treasure Box holding the Zoom Shoes, which increases a character's speed 

and boosts their Defense, but it is worth it for all the Frog Coins. Continuing on, you find steps with Chain Chomps, which are difficult to avoid due to their size, and in the next room, you come across Booster again. This time, he mentions how the princess keeps talking about Mario and, correctly figuring you might be him, tosses some Bob-Ombs down at you. You can either take cover behind the wall, with a hollowed-out portrait, or run into the next room. There, you find yourself right next to a Chain Chomp, whom you can just avoid if you don't move to the right and just head

up the steps to the left. At the top, you go into a room with a Save Block and Treasure Box containing a Frog Coin, reached using the yellow steps in here. Also, if you jump on top of that box, you can find a hidden one containing a Goodie Bag, which gives you one Coin every time you use it. You can use it endlessly but, honestly, it's a rather useless Item.

Beyond this is the room outside of the balcony where Princess Toadstool is being held. You can't open the door, of course, because, according to her, Booster has some kind of spell on it. Then, hearing Booster coming, Mario hides behind the curtain on the room's left side, leading into a rather fun little mini-game. Booster and his three main Snifits enter the room and talk for a little bit about Booster's plan to marry the princess. He decides to hold a wedding rehearsal using the dolls he has, including one of the princess

(so, he happened to already have a doll of the very woman who just randomly showed up at his tower?), but then decides to take into account Mario's penchant for showing up by also using a doll he has of him (even though he didn't initially know who Mario was when he met him in person earlier). They're unable to find the doll, which is right above the curtains, and decide to look behind them. The object here is to move from one section of curtains to the other, avoiding the Snifits as they pull them open. First, 

only one Snifit looks, and he's easy to avoid, but when he doesn't find the doll, Booster has the second Snift look along with him, followed by all three looking at the same time. This is where things get tricky, as you not only have just four curtains to hide behind as it is, but there are moments where a Snifit will act like he's going to open one, only to then go for another to fake you out. If you're discovered before the mini-game is up, you have to fight Booster and the Snifits. Despite all this build up as a potential boss, this is the only time you actually fight him, and 

he doesn't attack until you defeat his Snifits. Each of them has 200 HP, but since you've likely already faced all of them in battle, they're not that hard to deal with. Booster himself comes with 800 HP, 75 Attack and 55 Defense, and 40 Magic Defense. He's vulnerable to Mario's jump attacks, especially the Super Jump, which you've probably learned at this point, and has no Magic Attacks. However, when you knock his HP down to 500, he incorporates some pretty hard-hitting special attacks: the Spritz Bomb, where he literally dumps bombs down on one character, and Loco Express, where he rams a party member with his toy train, which does a lot of damage. Once he's beaten, him and his Snifits flee out the door, taking the princess with them.

That's one scenario, however. If you manage to last until there's only one curtain to hide behind, Booster himself pulls that one back. Even though he's just exposed you, he instead notices the Mario doll above you, and cries about not being to reach it. Mario, ever the good guy, knocks it down off its perch, much to Booster's delight. He even gives you an Amulet, which raises all your attacks and defense by seven, but lowers your speed by five. He opens the door using the magic word (it turns out to be whatever you

put in as your name when you first uploaded the game file) and walks out onto the balcony, never once realizing that you're the real Mario. One of the Snifits, however, does a double take at you before joining his companions. When you walk out there, you find no sign of them or the princess, but are instead faced with Knife Guy and Grate Guy, two clownish bosses. They each have their own respective stats, as Knife Guy has 700 HP, 70 Attack and 55 Defense, but his Magic Attack and Defense are pathetic, at just 20 and

10 respectively. As you can guess, his attacks involve knives, but, when he and Grate Guy team up, with him standing on the latter's head, he uses Blizzard and Crystal. His weakness is Mario's fire attacks. Grate Guy, on the other hand, is much more formidable, as he has 900 HP, and his Magic Attack and Defense stats are better, at 25 and 40. He specializes in Magic Attacks, using Meteor Blast, as well as attacks that can either Mute or put a party member to sleep. However, his regular Attack and Defense stats are lower than Knife Guy's, at 60 and 40, and he's

vulnerable to Mallow's Thunderbolt attack. Since Knife Guy is the weaker one, it's best to target him first, then focus all your attacks on Grate Guy, and it's also best to be at Level 10 when you face them. Once they're defeated, the party jumps off the balcony and you immediately transition to the next stage, Booster Hill.

After you defeat them, the Guys both decide to go into the gambling business. Knife Guy stays at the tower and, if you visit it later on, you find him on one of the staircases, juggling some balls. If you talk with him, you can play a game with him: he juggles a yellow ball amid some red ones and, when he stops, you have to guess which hand it's in. You can go for twelve rounds, each one getting progressively harder, as he juggles faster and faster, and if you miss one, you have to go back down a difficulty level. I've never found it to be that hard; in fact, I find this easier than some similar mini-games. While his "prizes" often aren't that great (Moldy Mush, Wilt Shroom, and Rotten Mush), you can win more practical ones like Mid Mushroom, Max Mushroom, or Kerokero Cola. And if you win twelve times, Knife Guy gives you a Bright Card for Grate Guy's Casino, which can be accessed later on, in Land's End.

Booster Hill: This is another mini-game stage, like the Midas River course. With the princess on his back, Booster rushes up this steep hill, with Mario in hot pursuit, and the Snifits chasing after him. You can only move left or right, and you also have to dodge barrels that come rolling down the hill, as well as the Snifits when they rush up behind you (holding up the edges of their cloaks as they go) or they cause you to fall back and lose ground. However, if you jump on the barrels or a Snifit's head, you can spring forward

and get closer to Booster and Toadstool. This is not a race you can actually win, but each time you manage to touch the princess, you get a Flower Tab. Also, the longer it goes on, the more agile the Snifits become, making it easier for them to knock you back, and the clouds that pass by overhead can block your view just long enough to cause you to mess up. Once you reach the top, you're told how many Flowers you managed to collect and, like before, move right on to the next stage, Marrymore. Later, the hill becomes the location

for another mini-game: the Beetle Race. After you've liberated Seaside Town, a Snifit opens up a store there called Beetles Are Us, where you can buy a Beetle Box in order to catch beetles found on the hill (you need to buy a new box every time you attempt this, and the first time, you have to pay a fee of 100 Coins, plus 50 for the box). The mini-game itself functions just like when you chased Booster, only here, you jump on the barrels and Snifits in order to catch beetles. The beetles come in three types, and are each worth a different amount: the common, tiny females

are worth one Coin, the big males are worth 50, and gold beetles are each worth a Frog Coin. And finally, one last cool detail: in the background, you can see various locations, like the Mushroom Kingdom, Bowser's Keep, and such as silhouettes.

Marrymore: When you first arrive here, there's a woman you can talk to who tells you that Booster, whom she describes as having a face like a totem pole, is up at the wedding hall. Before you do anything, it's a good idea to go into the nearby hotel, which also doubles an Item Shop, in order to use the Save Block. When you walk over to the chapel, you find a bunch of people gathered outside, and when you talk to them, they mention how Booster just ran in there with Princess Toadstool. Then, Raz and Raini

from the Mushroom Kingdoom are booted out of the chapel by one of the Snifits, who announces that they've barricaded the door. If you go up to the door and interact with it, he'll again say that he's not letting you in, before adding that the back door is locked... or, rather, he thinks it is. Sure enough, if you go around the corner, you can walk right through the back door. You go down some stairs, into the very small kitchen, where Chef Torte and his apprentice are making Booster's wedding cake. If you jump onto

the cake, Torte, whose dialogue seems to indicate he's speaking in some European accent, like German or Swedish, becomes enraged, exclaiming, "Vat... vat are you doing?!" He and the apprentice then angrily push you off the cake, yelling, "You fools!" You can do this as many times as you want, but you don't get anything for it. When you head upstairs, the Snifit guarding the door spots you and, after taking a few seconds to realize who you are, tries to go warn Booster. However, the door leading to the chapel is jammed, and he asks you to help him bust it down. This is the

first of a couple of timing challenges you have to do in rapid succession. You and the Snifit have to rush at the door and hit it at the exact same time, and the game is very precise about it. So many times, you'll think you did it perfectly, only for it to not count. When you manage to do it right, the Snifit hits another one behind the door and they both fly through the one leading into the actual chapel. You hear a crash and Booster, after admonishing them for breaking down the door, orders them to shut it. They do, and both Snifits say they're sure you can't get

through, only to mention how big and strong Bowser is. That's when you have to repeat the same timing challenge with Bowser. I could be wrong but this seems even trickier than the first time, as it feels more precise, and even though Bowser snaps his fingers before he lunges, it's still difficult to get right. Also, before you attempt it, you best use the Save Block, because another boss battle is coming up soon.

When you and Bowser bust down the door, it causes a lot of havoc. You both slam into the Snifits, who, in turn, hit Princess Toadstool and Booster, the latter getting smooshed between her and the altar. When she gets up off the floor, she realizes she lost many of her accessories, namely her shoes, ring, brooch, and crown. She begins crying, as Booster, who didn't even notice what happened, tries to start the wedding. Seeing how she's crying, and wondering if she's leaking (even though he himself was crying at one

point earlier), the Snifits make him realize what the problem is and they begin looking for her accessories. They find the shoes, ring, and brooch, but can't find the crown. You then have to chase them around the chapel as they jump and scramble, and stop each one and talk to him so he'll give you the accessory he's found. When you have all three, you take them up front to Booster, who has the crown on his head and doesn't realize it, and speak with him. This leads to Princess Toadstool becoming ecstatic that you've

arrived... and she then jumps about a mile and lands on top of Mario when she sees that Bowser is with you. Once she gets over that shock, she intends to kiss Mario for what he did, only for Bowser to complain that he should get one, along with Booster, who starts stomping up and down like a bratty kid. Whatever happens next depends on how long it took you to get everything back from the Snifits. If you got them immediately, Toadstool kisses Mario, but if you took too long, he gets a kiss from either Bowser, Booster, or both of them! As Toadstool says, any of the latter

choices are for the scrapbook. In any case, once all that nonsense is done, Mario and the gang are about to leave, when Chef Torte and the apprentice come in with the cake. When they realize the "bride" is leaving, they're furious at how there's no one to eat the cake they're worked on all day, and pull you into a fight.

Believe it or not, your opponent isn't Torte or his apprentice but, rather, the cake! You can't hurt the chefs, so the only way to progress is to attack the cake. After enough hits, it starts to move, which the apprentice notices and tries to warn Torte of, but the chef ignores him. When you continue on, the cake moves again, and this time, it truly comes alive, prompting them to run for it. Ignoring the question of how this thing is alive in the first place, this cake, which is divided into two layers, each of which acts

independently, can be a tough opponent. The upper layer, called Bundt, has 900 HP, and while its regular Defense is a pathetic 10 and its Magic Attack is just 25, its regular Attack is 65 and its Magic Defense is 50. It fights back with the magic attacks of Diamond Saw and Blizzard, and the Sleep-inducing special attacks of Lullabye and Glowing Shot, but it's vulnerable to Mario's jump attacks. That's really its only weakness, so its best to concentrate on it with 

those, along with everyone else's regular attacks. When you manage to extinguish all five of its candles (one goes out each time you hit Bundt physically, but it also relights one each time it attacks), Bundt disappears and the lower layer, Raspberry, becomes vulnerable. Raspberry has only 600 HP, but stronger Attack and Defense stats, at 70 and 20, and 30 Magic Attack, although its Magic Defense is downgraded to just 30. It still uses Glowing Shot, but replaces Bundt's other attacks with Sand Storm and Drain Beam. The same strategy applies to it. When you've 

depleted all of its HP, Booster and the Snifits come in, the former demanding to know where his cake is. The Snifits let him know it's what he's currently standing on, and after he tries to wrap his head around that idea, he then tries to figure out how to eat it. To help him, the Snifits toss the cake up into the air and Booster eats it in one big gulp. And with that, the fight's over and Booster and the Snifits head for home. Princes Toadstool, after expressing relief that she didn't have to marry Booster, suggests they head back to the Mushroom Kingdom.

On your way out, you let the others, including Raz and Raini, know that they can proceed with the originally scheduled ceremony. They all head into the chapel, and if you go back in there, you can see the wedding in progress. Earlier, when everyone was outside, there was a little Mushroom boy who was badly shivering, and the text said he looked as though he seriously needed to go "somewhere." If you talk to him in the chapel, he exclaims that he can't take it anymore and runs out! Also, there's no one to

officiate the wedding, but Mario is apparently licensed to do it himself, as he does if you stand behind the altar and hit the interact button. And the man at the organ plays a song that was apparently one of Toadofsky's works. Moreover, there's another couple waiting to be married outside, while down in the kitchen, the chefs are preparing another cake. Outside, you can also be a part of this group wedding photo that's being taken. And when you head to the path to the wedding hall's left, the princess will ask 

you if you're going back to the Mushroom Kingdom (you have to go out the path up front). I remember that I once decided to see what would happen if you answered "no," and it prompted every individual member of your party to try to make you understand why you should. If you said no to everyone, they would all crowd in and yell at you, prompting you to acquiesce. In any case, once you leave, you head straight back to the Mushroom Kingdom. If you talk to some people upon arriving there, like the guard standing near the rear entrance, they may badmouth 

Bowser, only to stop in their tracks when they hear him snarl. When you walk into the castle, Toad is ecstatic to see the princess and he takes you to see the Chancellor. This leads into a long cutscene where you talk with the Chancellor, who is also shocked to see Bowser tagging along with Mario. Everyone then tries to explain what's going on with his castle and Smithy, while Bowser continues trying to save face, which no one really buys. When Geno explains what happened to the Star Road and what it means for the future, the princess infers that she's going to join the 

group, but the Chancellor is aghast at this. She then says she's tired and leaves to go up to her room. She seems to have changed her mind, even if you go up to her room afterward and talk to her. But when you walk outside, she suddenly floats down nearby using a parasol. She then officially joins the party, and you have to go back to Frogfucius to learn where the next star is.

Briefly going back to Marrymore, I have to talk about the hotel there. You can stay in either the regular room or, for 200 Coins, the Suite. The first time you stay in the latter, you get a Flower Tab as a gift, followed by a Flower Jar when you stay three times, and a Frog Coin if you stay five. In the suite, you can order room servie by hitting the bell on the table (it's actually just a Pick Me Up or Kerokero Cola); walk into the bathroom, where you can hear Mario showering and scrubbing his ears (while whistling

the Super Mario Bros. theme), before he comes out with a red face; and turn off the light in order to go to sleep. Also, if you tip the bellhop 10 coins and, on your way out, say you had a great time, you'll get another present. While staying there, you can walk into the regular room without any problems, finding a hidden Treasure Box with a Frog Coin on the dresser against the wall. You can stay in the suite a number of different nights in a row, paying 100 Coins for every subsequent one, but if you go past the amount of money you have, you're forced to work off your bill 

as a bellhop! Sure enough, you have to actually show guests to their room and work behind the counter with the manager, and if you try to sneak out, you get pulled right back in. Finally, in the lobby is a guy who will offer to buy the Bright Card you can get from Knife Guy for 100 Coins. If you turn him down, he'll offer five Frog Coins, and if you turn that down, he'll offer ten.

Seaside

Star Hill: After all the crap you were put through in the previous land, this one starts off with a very simple stage. There's not much to do here except make your way through the various Star Doors by activating the Star Flowers scattered about. You have to search every corner of each screen to find all the flowers, and you always go through the same door to continue on. The area when you first arrive has two doors, one of which leads back to the Map Screen, while the other goes further into Star Hill itself.

Beyond it, Geno explains the place's purpose, that it's where all wishes hail from after they've been transformed at the Star Road. There are also many unfulfilled wishes, in the form of little stars with smiling faces, scattered about, and you can read what each wish is by interacting with them. None of them say who made the wish, but given what they are, you can kind of figure it out, especially if you've been paying attention to the characters you've met during the journey. One, found in the upper-left corner of the

first area, beside the door, reads, "Wish I weren't such a crybaby," and Mallow immediately outs himself by berating you for looking at private wishes (he then apologizes, saying that wish is just embarrassing). In the second area's lower right-hand corner, one wish reads, "Please let Mallow find his way home," which he realizes is from his parents and that they're looking for him. He gets a bit emotional but decides now isn't the time for tears and you carry on. This is one of the landscapes I mentioned before that can be hard to navigate, due to all the hills and craters, and can wear

on your fingers, and there are plenty of annoying enemies roaming around to avoid. However, in the stage's third section, you find the fourth Star Piece, just as Frogfucius said, and there's no trick: you literally just walk up and collect it. Once you have it, you just open up the Star Door here and head back to the Map Screen. Savor the moment, though, because none of the remaining three Star Pieces are that easy to get (and the penultimate tricks you into thinking it is).

Seaside Town (1): The music lets you know immediately that something amiss here, although it doesn't look as ominous and dreary as it did when the Mushroom Kingdom and Rose Town were invaded. However, the townspeople, despite looking like regular Mushroom folk, have an unusual gray look to them and also act weird. If you go to the Inn, the manager is standing on his desk, and speaks with long pauses in his dialogue. He lets you stay for free, but just as you wake up in your room, you see him

quickly rush out and head back downstairs, having seemingly been watching you. There are various shops here, with three of them housed in one building and another three in the other, but the people who run them come off as weird, too. In one of the shops found behind the Inn, the guy is standing on his front desk and watching the spinning Mushroom signs, noting how they keep spinning and spinning. You're unable to buy anything from him, but if you go to the shop next door, one of the two weirdos there mention 

using the whirlpools in the ocean to get the bottom, while the other suggests you go talk to the village elder, at his house on the hill in the town's left corner in the back. And the shop next to this one has someone standing atop a cabinet, who, somehow knows how many Star Pieces you have left to collect. One of the shops across from these have managers who mention a Star Piece that fell into the ocean and that a pirate named Jonathan Jones likely has it in his sunken ship. They also suspiciously whisper to each other when they seem to forget what to say. The other 

shop here is the only place where you can actually buy anything at the moment, and they include Items such as Fright, Fire, and Ice Bombs (which are all very pricey), Muku Cookies, and Bad Mushrooms. (Personally, I never buy anything from this guy and get along fine.) There's a building across from the Inn that has two guards in front of the door, both of whom claim there's nothing of interest inside, but if you interact with one of the windows, a caption will say that there's someone in there. Finally, when you go speak to the elder, he also talks about a Star Piece that

fell into the sea, saying he needs you to go collect it, as he requires it for, "A certain purpose." And upstairs, in the guest room, is Frogfucius' student, who sells you rare accessories, but for quite a bit of Frog Coins, so choose wisely.

Sea: Despite its name, this stage is actually a series of watery caverns and tunnels that eventually lead to the seaside. When you first enter here, you find a Shaman who's running a makeshift shop full of some very useful stuff, such as sailor suits for everybody, except Bowser, who instead gets the Hurly Gloves as a weapon; the Super Hammer for Mario; the Hand Gun for Geno; the Whomp Gloves for Mallow; and Mid Mushrooms, Maple Syrups, and Pick Me Ups. From there, you have two routes you can take. There's one

accessed behind the Shaman, which leads to a Save Block, but also a bunch of crates you can't get around. The other, on the opposite side of the room across from the Shaman, leads to a cavern filled with several stacks of crates, as well as many snoozing Zeostars. Also in here is a Treasure Chest with an Invincibility Star, allowing you to take out all of the stars in here, as well as some in the next passage, if you're quick enough, and to level up substantially. The next passage has an entrance to the other part of that room 

with the Save Block, where you can access some Treasure Chests containing a Mushroom, a Flower Tab, and a Frog Coin. In the last cavern before you go out to the sea, you can get into water and use a whirlpool to reach the bottom of this small stretch of it. Back along the wall is an opening that takes you to an underwater spot where, if you jump amid the bubbles, you can reach the surface. It brings you out in a section of water atop the spot where you came in. Here, you're able to access a Treasure Chest housing a Max Mushroom. Finally, once you get to the actual

sea, you also use a whirlpool to reach the bottom and, while avoiding the Bloobers, make your way over to the Sunken Ship. You hop up to and use the crow's nest as a pipe to journey down into the bowels of the ship.

Sunken Ship: When you first enter the stage, you find one of many pages from the ship's log, this first one talks about how they were attacked by a giant squid. Once again, you have two ways to go, with the door on the right leading to a room with a Save Block, as well as the second page from the log, where it says the crew managed to trap the squid in the treasure room. The door on the left leads further into the ship, to a room with another page from the log, stating that the door to the cellar can be opened with 

a six-letter password and you'll have to decipher it using six hints. There are also a bunch of Greapers in here, while the next room has both Greapers and Dry Bones, and a log entry that says the hints could be tough to decipher, as they come from different people. A stairway full of Alley Rats is beyond the next door, and at the bottom of the stairs, atop some crates, is a Treasure Chest full of Coins. Next is the upper part of a large room housing six doors, and within each of those rooms, which is guarded by a Greaper, is a

puzzle you have to solve in order to get one of the clues about the password. The first puzzle has you manipulate this Sky Troopa, who follows you around the room, into knocking a cannonball onto a Switch in order to get the first clue ("There's an 'S' in the word,"), as well as a Mushroom; if he misses the Switch, you have to exit the room and reenter to try again. In the second room, you have to hit these blocks in order to get the three corresponding Trampolines on the ledge into the right position to where a cannonball can bounce across them and hit a 

Switch. The placement of these Trampolines is very precise, which can be frustrating, but you get unlimited chances and don't have to leave the room and reenter in order to restart the challenge. If you succeed, you get a Flower Tab and the clue, "It is found on the bed of the ocean," for your trouble.

The next challenge, however, is one I hate with every fiber of my being: a 3-D Maze. While the camera stays on the maze's outside, you have to get through its interior and up to the Switch on its highest level by literally feeling your way around and blindly jumping as often as possible. This is one of the most frustrating tasks you have to do in the entire game, possibly the most frustrating, as the camera's following your movements on the outside is the only clue you have as to where you are, and you really 

have to just hope you make it through the maze by pure dumb luck. Trust me, you'll be pressing the "Jump" button and different directions on the Control Pad like mad until, suddenly, you bound up an unseen flight of stairs and find yourself on one of the maze's higher levels. I still don't know how I managed to make it to the top, especially since, even if you get to the second level, you can fall back to the bottom when you go through the next passage. And trust me, you will very quickly tire of the sound of Mario's 

jumping. If you manage to get to the Switch, you get a Royal Syrup and a clue that reads, "It has two vowels." After you get out of there, the next room has a staircase leading down to the lower level, with a Dry Bones marching back and forth in a corner, guarding a Treasure Box that houses ten Gold Coins. It's not worth it, as you can't avoid fighting the Dry Bones in order to get to the box, and he'll likely revive before you've gotten all the Coins, forcing you to fight him again. Also in this room is another 

Shaman, who will give you some Items, though his inventory is the same as in the previous stage. He also lets you in on a secret: if you're able to deduce what the password is on your own, it's not necessary to get all the clues, to which I was like, "Well, that was great to know!" Regardless, through the door is that previous room's lower level and the other three puzzles. The fourth is an interesting one: a Coin floats around a room, leaving duplicates of itself in its wake, and you have to collect them before they disappear, often jumping around and across the different crates 

and objects to do so. The catch, however, is that you have to keep from grabbing the main Coin until it's the only one left; otherwise, you'll have to exit and reenter the room to try again. For this, you get the clue, "It has four consonants." The fifth puzzle requires you to hit a block to make these cannons fire one at a time, and you have to jump up and hit each cannonball, knocking it into the block it travels under. You get another Mushroom and a clue that reads, "At least two consonants are side by side." And behind the door, you get two Switches, as well as a Save 

Block. You have to press both Switches down, which you do by knocking loose a barrel from the stack on the right, then riding it onto the one Switch (you have to jump atop the barrel and hop repeatedly to make it move), before jumping onto the other. You then get another Mushroom and the final clue, "The 'r' comes before the 'l.'"

The password is "pearls," in case you couldn't figure it out, and in the next room, you have to spell it out using these floating blocks, hitting each one until it highlights the correct letter. You then "speak" the password into the tube by door by interacting with it. When you've gotten it right, a tentacle comes out of the tube and beckons you through the door, with a dialogue box saying you have to get past the creature it's attached to. Naturally, it's the giant squid that attacked and sank the ship. Named King Calamari,

you have to fight him in several stages. In both of the first two, you have to fight three of his tentacles. Each one has 200 HP, as well as 82 Attack and 50 Defense, but only 35 Magic Attack and 40 Magic Defense. They attack by either slapping you or tossing one party member up into the air, and when they come back down, while they're not damaged, they're now suffering from Fear. The tentacles are weak against fire attacks, so it's best to use them in conjunction with a bunch of regular ones. When you reach King Calamari himself, he comes with 800 HP, with 100 on

Attack and 80 on Defense, but only 30 on Magic Attack and 40 on Magic Defense. He attacks with Sand Storm and Drain Beam, as well as Ink Blast and Venom Drool, and you also have to fight two more of his tentacles at the same time. Like before, it's best to just keep hitting him with Mario's fireballs (and Geno Beam, if he's part of the group), as well as regular attacks from the others, and keep healing yourself in order to finally persevere.

When you defeat Calamari, you head on to the next section of the ship, walking through a door to find a room with a staircase, and doors on both the bottom and top floor. The bottom door doesn't lead anywhere, while the upper door leads to a level where you have dodge some Bullet Bills being fired out of cannons by Alley Rats to reach the door on the opposite side. You don't get pulled into a fight if you get hit, but you do get pushed down in the lower level and have to go back up. Through the door is another staircase you

have to head down, while avoiding Alley Rats like earlier. At the bottom of the stairs, you enter into the right side of a large room, with more Alley Rats and some Treasure Chests floating above the large platform in the center, both of which contain Coins. The next room has the weirdly random addition of a Mario doppelganger, who doesn't attack, but moves and jumps whenever you do. You need him in order to activate a hidden Treasure Chest containing a Kerokero Cola, which will come in handy in the next

boss fight. However, getting him into position and then jumping on his head to reach the box can be difficult because of how he mimics your movements. You then head on through a door that leads to the top of another staircase, with several Dry Bones roaming around. Behind the crates is a hidden room with a Treasure Box containing a Frog Coin, but to get it, you'll likely have to fight a Dry Bones who mills around back there. At the bottom of the stairs is a room with a Save Block and a chest with a Mushroom. However, the chest on the other side of 

the crates is actually the game's second Treasure Chest enemy, Hidon, so fight him at your own risk. Through the door, you enter the dry section of a room filled with water, with some Mr. Kippers swimming around, as well as some Frog Coins on the bottom. You have to go through the next door in order to reach them, as it leads you down to a spot with a whirlpool that sucks you down to the floor, allowing you to go back into that room through another door to the left. You stay underwater for a little bit, going through another door, down a flooded stairway with 

Zeostars and more Mr. Kippers. At the stairway's bottom, you enter the flooded cargo hold, where a Bloober is floating around with its young. There's another hidden door in this spot, with a chest containing the Safety Ring accessory, and another Frog Coin floating on some barrels on the surface.

In the next room, you run into a group of four Bandana Reds: these small, anthropomorphic sharks who are the minions of Jonathan Jones, this stage's main boss. They immediately crowd around Mario, leading into a fight. These guys are pretty weak, as they have just 120 HP each, and their only attacks are to stab you with their spears, sometimes using an attack called Skewer, which doesn't do that much damage, even when you miss the chance to block it. They're weak against fire and thunder attacks, so you

can easily take them down. When you beat them, they go to warn those on the upper deck, while you collect a Mushroom in the Treasure Box they were guarding. When you try to go up the stairs, there's a moment where more Bandana Reds come running back down and end up trampling you. Turning around and spotting you, they try to chase you up the stairs, only for another two to appear at the top and send a barrel tumbling down at you. Mario ducks down, causing the barrel to go over him and hit the guys behind him, which those up top have audacity to admonish him 

for. You head on up, only to be blocked by more Bandana Reds, whom you have to fight (this time, you have to face five of them). After you beat them, they agree to let you continue on. In the next cabin, you meet Jonathan Jones, a shark pirate, who has the next Star Piece in his possession. Naturally, he's not keen on letting you have it, leading into another boss battle.

Like Mack back in the Mushroom Kingdom, Jonathan Jones fights with the support of some of his underlings. These are Bandana Blues, who are a bit tougher than the Reds, as they have 150 HP and use the more damaging special attack called Pierce. However, they're still weak against magic attacks, especially fire and thunder, so they're not really an issue. Jones himself is a different matter. He comes with 820 HP, 85 Attack and 80 Defense, and 60 Magic Defense, with no real weaknesses. He uses

attacks like Skewer, as well as the fairly potent magic attacks of Diamond Saw and Drain Beam, and changes his strategy depending on whether or not you defeat all of the Bandana Blues. If you do, he challenges Mario to a one-on-one fight, while your comrades face off against a couple of other Blues (they don't actually fight, though; they just gesture at and mock each other). This is not ideal, especially if your Items are running low, because, once his HP drops below half, Jonathan uses a move called "Get Touch!", where his skin turns red, and his Attack and 

Defense increases. And you do get Game Over if he defeats you in this match, even though your two comrades are still active. The best strategy is to keep one of the Bandana Blues alive so Jonathan will continue fighting the entire party, and focus all of your energy on him until he's beaten. Once you win, Jonathan hands the Star Piece over and allows you to use a Warp Trampoline in the next room to go back to the Map Screen.

Seaside Town (2): Returning here, you're immediately faced with the town elder and the entire populace, only for the elder to reveal that, shocker of shockers, he's another of Smithy's commanders, Yaridovich, in disguise. He demands that you hand over the Star Piece and, if you refuse, one of his minions will run to the shack from before, where the real townspeople are being held, and torture the real elder. They keep on doing this each time you refuse, with more of the minions going in there, (they're 

actually tickling him to death with a feather). When you hand the star over, the group rush off to wait for a ride that's coming for them. Before you follow after them, it's a good idea to save your game at the Inn, and go back to the Shaman's shop in the Sea stage to stock up on any Items you need. This lone path leading away from the town and towards the seashore, which you might've noticed before, is where Yaridovich and his group go in order to wait for their escape. When you show up, they try to swim for it, 

only for Jonathan Jones and a couple of Bandana Blues to pop out of the sea. With no other recourse, Yaridovich drops his disguise (which includes his minions, as they were just separate parts of him) and you battle him. He's definitely the hardest boss so far, as he comes with 1500 HP, 125 Attack and 85 Defense, and 70 Magic Attack and 75 Magic Defense. He has a set pattern to his attacks, though, as he always starts with Water Blast, then uses it, Flame Stone, or Willy Wisp for two turns, and next uses Mirage Attack to create a duplicate of himself. If you 

attacked him before he does the latter, the cursor will default to the real Yaridovich; if not, you can still tell who the real one is because he takes less damage. While duplicated, the real Yaridovich uses physical attacks, including Pierce, while the duplicate mixes in others like Meteor Blast, Static E!, and Bolt. After the duplicate has attacked twice or his HP is depleted, he merges back into Yaridovich and the pattern starts over. His only weakness is thunder, meaning Mallow should be part of the fight, and Princess Toadstool should be on hand to heal everybody, as many of these attacks pack a punch.

After you've beaten Yaridovich, you reclaim the Star Piece, as well as find the key to the shed, and a note from Jonathan, who said his pirates spotted a huge axe going through the sky. Going back to town, you unlock the shed, freeing all the townspeople, with the elder rewarding you with a Flower Jar. Once the place is up and running again, you can find various shops, such as the aforementioned Beetles Are Us; a weapon and armor shop, where you can buy a Troopa Shell weapon for Mario, a Parasol for Princess Toadstool,

and a Double Punch for Geno, as well as all of your past weapons; a "Health Food Store," run by a Mole woman, which actually just sells the most basic Items; an accessory shop; and a spot called Mushroom Boy's Shop, where you bring various Mushrooms found in the Forest Maze and the guy who runs it tastes it; if it's a rare type, he'll give you rare Items, like Rock Candy. If talk to the elder up at his house, he tells you about Monstro Town, on the other side of Land's End, and how they have a star, letting you know where you have to head next.

But, since it becomes available at this point, I guess I may as well briefly mention the Beetle Mania mini-game. If you back to the Mushroom Kingdom and keep talking to that kid at the Inn there, he'll eventually offer to let you buy his GameBoy for 500 Coins. He'll also offer to teach you how to play the game, which, like I said, is like a classic arcade shooter: you just fire stars from the small brown beetle on the bottom of the screen, hitting the Koopa Shells that come down on you from above. If you get

hit, you just press the "Fire" button repeatedly in order to recover, and continue on until you run out of lives, with small hearts representing extra ones. This has no effect on the main quest whatsoever and is just for your own personal amusement, so whether or not you want to spend the money is entirely your call. And if you do, it's best to wait until near the end of the game, where you have an opportunity to max out all the money you can carry.

Land's End

Land's End: Yeah, I know, it's confusing when the overall area has the same name as one of the stages, let alone the first. This is the stage that features the Pot Cannons, which you have to jump into, then wait for them to pivot and aim in the right direction. While not the most difficult task in the game, it can be annoying, as you'll swear you were aiming where you wanted to go, only to undershoot it. The first section has you do this to get onto a platform to reach a cliff, whereas in the second one, when you fire, you land in a pit on the cliff, startling three Chows, who

jump out. While you don't have to fight all three, it's impossible to get out of the pit without battling at least one. You'll likely notice a floating Treasure Box's shadow in this spot, but to get it, you have to activate a hidden platform between the cannon and the ledge, as well as another one around the pit, which you have to use the cannon to get to; the box contains a Frog Coin. Another hidden Treasure Box on the plateau contains a Kerokero Cola. The next section requires you to hop across some pillars, which some automatic cannons off to the right are firing Geckits

onto. It can be hard to get across without getting pulled into fights, and if you're jumping when this happens, you can end up falling off the pillar, forcing you to use a spare cannon to blast yourself back up there. In the next stage, the environment changes from a rocky desert to looking more like parts of Mushroom Way. Here, you can either use the Spinning Flowers to make your way up the dirt mounds, while avoiding the Stingers, or take a path off to the right of the mounds. Both lead you to the

same section, where you have to cross a bridge made up of Donut Blocks called the Sky Bridge to continue on. If you propelled yourself across the mounds, you come out at the top of the cliff where the bridge begins, while the lower path takes you to its base where, after you've cleared the bridge once, a friendly Shaman will levitate you up to the cliff's top during return visits. And if you walk over to the base of the other cliff, you'll see an opening in its side with a little cloud coming out of it. Jumping into it takes you

into an underground tunnel, akin to those under the Forest Maze and in the Moleville Mines. Making your way through them, battling Geckits, Chows, and Shy Aways, you come to a spot where you have to push a barrel out of the way to continue on. At the end of the tunnel is a Trampoline that transports you all the way back to Kero Sewers. Here, you can reach that one Treasure Box you couldn't get to before (that is, if you don't screw up and miss the arch it's on, as I've done), which contains some Cricket Jam. If you take that to Frogfucius, he'll give you ten Frog Coins as a reward. 

Getting back to the Sky Bridge, you play something of a mini-game in order to cross it. You pay five Coins, then select one of three difficulty levels: Normal, Special, and Expert. In all three, you have to cross while dodging Bullet Bills that are being fired at you, but on the higher difficulties, the platforms also fall and the jumps themselves get harder. Naturally, you lose if you fall off. You get back your five Coins for completing the Normal level, but you get eight for the Special and a Frog Coin for the Expert. You also double your Coins if you cross twice in a row without

failing. Once you reach the other side, you can continue on to the next section, which is a full-on sandy desert. In the first screen here, you meet a friendly Rat Funk, who asks if you're on your way to Monstro Town. If you say yes, he tells you how to get there: look for the whirlpools in the sand housing Shoguns and jump in. You have to do this in order to progress from one screen to the next, likely while battling the Shoguns each time. The Shoguns tend to screw with you, moving the swirls around and popping in and out at random, which can cause you 

to jump into the wrong one if you're not careful. This can also happen following a battle, as you may forget which swirl you were trying to jump into, which isn't helped by how the Shogun is now gone. If you do jump into the wrong one, you'll either end up in a random spot or back at the start of the desert. Speaking of the latter, there are two paths that veer off from this first screen, but they both lead to Shoguns, so it doesn't matter which one you take. If you keep jumping into their whirlpools, you'll eventually find 

yourself at a spot in the desert with a path. However, it leads to a cliff that you absolutely cannot climb, at least at the moment. When you go into that last Shogun's whirlpool, you find yourself in another underground tunnel. The first part has not only a Save Block but also an Invincibility Star, allowing you to blaze through the Geckits roaming around here and the next section, as well as a blockade of Chows in front of the entrance to the third section. In the third section is another blockade in front of a hole in the 

ground, and it will part like the Red Sea when you approach while invincible (you can still take them out, regardless). Down in the hole is a spot filled with Geckits, and if you jump behind the crates over to the left, you can speak with a hidden Shaman who, for 400 Coins, will give you another Invincibility Star. If you, for whatever reason, turn it down (the only reason why you should is because you don't have the money), you won't get the offer again, as the Shaman

disappears. You can also level up considerably by letting yourself get killed, then do all of this damage with the stars again when you start from the Save Block. Following this last spot, you make your way into a temple...

...Belome Temple, that is. Yep, you cross paths with old four-eyes again, and move on to Monstro Town. However, actually getting to him this time is a tad complicated. In the second room, you find a Shaman next to a wall with three Belome statues. To continue on, you have to pay him fifty Coins to have your fortune told, after which you hit the statues' tongues. Your fortune will depend on which order you hit them in, and that, in turn, will determine whether or not you get to face Belome himself. After you take the scroll on which your fortune is written, you move on to the 

next room, which will either contain a Treasure Box or enemies in front of a large gate. The gate opens after you've either grabbed the Items (which range from Yoshi Cookies to Frog Coins or a hundred regular Coins) or defeated the enemies, and in the next room, the Shaman tells you to activate another Belome statue. If you get text that reads, "Sorry, I'm not accepting visitors past my bedtime," you have to go back to the fortune room and try again; but if it says, "Mmm, I'm so hungry! Wish I had something to eat!", then you'll fight him. ("Left, Right, Center," 

"Center, Left, Right," and, "Right, Center, Left," are the patterns you have to hit in order to fight him.) However, after you've gotten to Monstro Town and acquired a key there, you can come back to the temple and gain access to a vault containing lots of nice Items. You have to pick a fortune where Belome refuses to fight, and when you do, you instead give him the key (which he eats!), allowing you into the vault, which contains eight Frog Coins, four Flower Tabs, a Royal Syrup, a Max Mushroom, and a Fire 

Bomb. I should also mention that, either up in the desert or in the temple, you may spot a small, moving puff of smoke. This is an optional boss that you can engage in battle by jumping at it. When the battle first starts, this boss is invisible and immune to regular attacks, but when you hit him with any special attacks, he reveals himself as Mokura, the same character Bowser summons when using his Poison Gas attack. He has 620 HP, 120 Attack and 75 Defense, and 80 Magic Attack and 90 Magic 

Defense. He also uses a lot of potent magic attacks: Bolt, Static E!, Electroshock, Crystal, and Solidify. However, the ironic thing is that, once he's visible, he's more vulnerable to regular attacks. All in all, he's actually not that difficult, especially if you've reached at least Level 18 when you face him.

Getting to the rematch with Belome, he now comes with 1200 HP, 120 Attack and 80 Defense, but mainly attacks with spells that put your party members to sleep. But what makes this second fight difficult is his newfound ability to clone your party members by eating them. Each clone has their own stats, and since the Mallow and Peach ones have the lowest HP, and the weakest Attack and Defense stats, both regular and magic-wise, it's a good idea to have them in the party. But, of course, since Mario has to fight, it's a given that you'll have to battle his tough clone, who 

has 200 HP, 100 Attack and 90 Defense, and 50 Magic Defense (but low Magic Attack, at just 33). The Bowser Clone is the toughest, with the highest HP, at 300, and the highest Attack and Defense stats, at 130 and 100 respectively (by contrast, he has the weakest magic stats: just 12 Magic Attack and no Magic Defense). It's fun reading Belome's reactions to each party member's different taste: Mario "Ack! Sour!", Mallowe "YES! THIS is YUMMY...", Geno "Bitter, but not bad...", Bowser "Yuck! How repulsive!", and Princess Toadstool "Mmm, tastes 

peachy..." Also, if you use Mallow's Psychopath on the clones, their inner thoughts reflect who they're cloned from (the Mallow Clone talks about his parents, the Bowser one about his castle, and Geno about the Star Pieces, though the Princess Toadstool Clone is vain, as she talks about how hard it is to be pretty), with the Mario Clone's thoughts being blank, since Mario himself doesn't speak in this game. In any case, whenever Belome creates clones, he can only make two at a time, and the best strategy is to focus 

on him, as well as use multi-target special attacks to weaken the clones as quickly as you can. If Belome goes down first, you still have to defeat any clones that remain, something I've read they changed in the Switch version. With the battle over, you hit a Switch that opens up the gate, leading to Monstro Town. That Rat Funk from before is waiting for the pipe in the next room that takes you to it (how did he get past Belome?).

Monstro Town: You transition right to this place after going down the pipe. It's basically just a cliffside with a series of doors built into it, serving as dwellings for the residents. The Save Block here is actually found in a pit on the opposite side from where you enter. The first door leads to the residence of Monstermama, who's sort of the town's den mother. When you talk to her about a "star," Monstermama says that she's right upstairs. Heading upstairs, you find that she's referring to a friendly Starslap, who's standing on a dresser to the right of a table where a Pandorite and

that Rat Funk are sitting. If you interact with her, she plays a melody, which is the third one you have to play for Toadofsky at Tadpole Pond. The Pandorite, meanwhile, tells you how many of the hidden Treasure Chests you have left to find, while the Rat Funk mentions a strange old guy in Rose Town who's worth talking to (the gardener). Going back downstairs and talking again to Monstermama, she says that, since this is the last spot on the land, you'd best look upwards for the Star Piece. To help you 

reach Bean Valley, where you can find a way to reach the sky, she calls in the Sky Troopas, headed by Sergeant Flutter, to help you scale the cliff at Land's End. Once they fly off, all you have to do is head back to that cliff yourself. Also, there's a fan in the main room here whose gust levels you can toggle from "Breeze" to "Gust" and "Blast." It may seem pointless, but you'd best have it set at "Breeze" before you move on, as it affects part of the next stage.

Next door to Monstermama is a dwelling home to a Chow, a Thwomp, and a Piranha Plant. The Chow keeps track of the number of Super Jumps you've managed to do in a row, and will give you an Attack Scarf, which raises all stats by thirty and also protects you from all instant death attacks. After you get that, if you manage to pull off a hundred Super Jumps, you get the Super Suit, which boosts Regular and Magic stats by fifty, Speed by thirty, and protects against all status-affecting and elemental attacks. The Thwomp, meanwhile, tries to outdo you at jumping, rising up

and slamming back down every time you talk to him. If you talk to him seven times, he'll dislodge the key on the exterior roof, which is the vault key you have to give Belome in order to get those treasures he guards. Two doors down from this one is a Weapon and Armor Shop, run by a Goomba who was once part of Bowser's forces. When he and his old boss meet, he apologizes for deserting him and introduces his three little triplets, who refer to Bowser as their uncle. Bowser, surprisingly, is very understanding and tells the Goomba to live his life! In any case, in

addition to all the expected Items, he also sells a Spiked Link and a Courage Shell for Bowser. His kids also offer Items, as in Mushrooms, but, while these do restore 30 HP, they also actually turn you into a Mushroom, so it's best not to buy them. Next door to the shop is a dwelling that belongs to the "Three Musty Fears," a trio consisting of a Greaper, a Big Boo, and a Dry Bones. While they're not present when you walk in, they leave a note inviting you to crash and rest up if you need to, and you don't have to

spend any money. They visit you at night while you're sleeping and decide to play a game of "Find the Flag" with you. Each of them goes and hides a flag somewhere in the world, and then give you hints as to where they can be found, promising an "awesome prize" if you find them. Their hints are vague: Greaper says his is, "Behind a wooden flower," Dry Bones' is, "Under a green bed," and Big Boo's can be found, "Between an 'O' and an 'A.'" Respectively, the hiding spots are in Rose Town, Mario's Pad, and Yo'ster Isle, and the prize is a Ghost Medal, which raises your Defense while attacking.

Finally, there are several optional boss battles in Monstro Town. The steps leading up to the door above the Three Musty Fears' home is a dojo, where, when you first walk in, you meet Jagger, a Terrapin who was leading Bowser's forces when you saw them way back in Rose Way. He admits that he's been training under Jinx, a martial arts master, in order to get stronger and stand a chance against Smithy. Like the Goomba, Bowser tells Jagger not to sweat it, but encourages him to train like crazy. If you talk with him again, he'll challenge you to a fight, and if you

accept, you find that his training has made him much stronger than a typical Terrapin. He has 600 HP, 120 Attack and 80 Defense, and fights with a special attack called a Terrapunch. However, he only has 50 Magic Defense and no Magic Attack, and can be easily brought down by any of your three fighters, given the levels they've likely reached at this point. Once you beat Jagger, Jinx appears, revealing himself to be a tiny little guy in a green cape. He sizes Mario up, telling him that his fighting style isn't as perfect as he may think, and challenges you. If you accept,

you'd better bring along Princess Toadstool and plenty of Pick Me Ups because, despite his small size, Jinx is hardcore. Moreover, you have to fight him three times in order to truly defeat him, and each time, his HP and stats get stronger (he also uses Valor Up whenever his HP drops below a certain point), and he also busts out more devastating attacks. Moreover, he has no weaknesses, and most special attacks don't faze him. He's only somewhat vulnerable to Mario's jump attacks, and even then, you have to mix in

regular attacks or the jumps lose their effectiveness. In the first round, Jinx has 600 HP, 140 Attack and 100 Defense, and Magic Defense of 80 (he never uses magic attacks, so that stat doesn't apply to him). The two attacks he introduces are Jinxed, where he basically just whales on a party member and hits them with a drop kick, and Triple Kick, where he does the same but uses a flying kick instead. In the second round, his HP increases to 800, his Attack and Defense go up to 160 and 120, Magic Defense to 90,

and he introduces two new attacks: Quicksilver and Silver Bullet, both of which are potentially fatal unless they're blocked. And in the final round, Jinx has 1,000 HP, 180 Attack and 140 Defense, and Magic Defense of 100, and uses a new attack called Bombs Away, which is the most powerful physical move in the game and a guaranteed fatal hit if not blocked. The only real upside to fighting Jinx is that he doesn't have any attacks that target all three party members. Also, if you lose, you don't get a Game 

Over, which is nice, if still frustrating. If you beat him all three times, you receive the Jinx Belt, which guards against fatal attacks, boosts Attack and Defense by 27, and Speed by 12. He also declares Mario the new sensei and renames the dojo after him, going outside and changing the "J" on the plaque to an "M." He and Jagger then begin practicing in Mario's style by jumping a thousand times to "warm up."

The last optional boss is found behind the third door from the left, which the text says has been sealed when you interact with it. Opening the door requires the Shiny Stone you get in Moleville, and when you go in, you find yourself in a freakish, alternate dimension. Here, you're met by Culex, a demon-like character who calls himself the "Dark Knight of Vanda" and fights for "the Dark Mage." Since this dimension is uninhabitable for him and his kind, he's about to return to his own world, but wants to battle the "strongest knight" here before he does. He then

asks if you will accept the challenge, and if you say yes, you'd better be maxed out on everything, from health to items and, especially, your status levels (the Player's Guide suggests it's best to wait until you reach at least Level 25), and have everyone equipped with their strongest weapons and armor. Culex, no joke, is the most powerful enemy in the game, even more so than Smithy! He himself has 4,096 HP, with 250 Attack and 100 Defense, and 100 Magic Attack and 80 Magic Defense. He has no weaknesses, and 

uses powerful moves such as Flame Stone, Dark Star, and Metor Blast, as well as a new move called Shredder, which takes away any beneficial status effects from all party members, depletes the benefits given by some accessories, and neutralizes the effect of the Red Essence item. (It's obvious that this is where Square's history with Final Fantasy comes into play, both in the graphic for Culex and the music, which, as I said before, actually comes from some of those games.)

As if that weren't bad enough, Culex is accompanied by four Crystals that represent the elements, each of which has its own stats and attacks (none of them have any regular attack stats, since they only use magic). The red Fire Crystal has 2500 HP, 100 Defense, 130 Magic Attack, and 60 Magic Defense, and fights with fire-based attacks, as well as Drain and Mega Drain. However, the Crystals do have weaknesses; this one's is ice attacks. The blue Water Crystal is a little bit weaker, with 1800 HP, 120 Magic Attack and 50 Magic Defense, but also has 130 

Defense and, despite its name, attacks with ice-based spells: Crystal, Diamond Saw, Solidify, Ice Rock, and Blizzard. Its weakness is fire attacks. The yellow Earth Crystal has the most HP, at 3,200, but has much less on the Defense, at 70, and Magic Attack and Magic Defense, at 80 and 33. It attacks with Blast, Sand Storm, Water Blast, Storm, and Boulder, and it's weak against thunder attacks. Finally, the green Wind Crystal has the least HP, at 800, and the least Magic Attack, at 60, while its Magic Defense is so-so, at 88.

However, it has the best regular Defense of the Crystals, at 200, and attacks mostly with electricity-based moves, as well as the Sleep-inducing Light Beam and the Mushroom-inducing Petal Blast. It's actually weak against jump attacks. So, yeah, you'd best be prepared for one hell of a battle (in all, you have to deplete 12,396 HP to win!). Any Rock Candy you have is really useful, and you'd best be prepared to frequently heal yourself, meaning it's a good idea to have Princess Toadstool on the team, along with all

the necessary Items, and boost your Attack and Defense stats whenever possible. It's also a good idea to take out the Crystals as quickly as possible by starting with the weakest and moving up, given how devastating their attacks are and the number of turns they get to pummel you when all of them are active. If you manage to win, Culex compliments you on your strong spirit and, before he departs, gives you a Quartz Charm, which prevents instant death attacks and increases attack and defense by 50%. When he leaves, the door he was behind disappears, leaving only a stone wall in its place.

Upon returning to the cliff at Land's End, Sergeant Flutter and his Sky Troopas arrive to help you scale it. Each Troopa tucks himself into his shell and you simply have to jump on the first one, let him fly you over to the next, step onto the next, and continue until you reach the top. It's fairly simple but, of course, the game designers decided to add some incentives for being a little more reckless and jumping across the shells to get up there faster. If you manage to get up there in less that fourteen seconds, you might get a Frog Coin; doing it in less than twelve seconds gets

you a Troopa Pin, which increases your attack power by 50% and your speed by twenty points; under 11.49 seconds guarantees a Frog Coin; and less than eleven seconds gets five Frog Coins. Of course, this is another instance where the isometric angle makes it tricky and, if you fall, you don't take damage but Sergeant Flutter restarts the timer each time. When you reach the top, you have to walk under Flutter in order to jump up to the ledge and continue on to Bean Valley.

Bean Valley: This stage is pretty short, with just a few main sections, but there are various routes to take. For instance, in the first section, where you find two pipes, as well as a pair of Stingers flying around, the one on the left takes you to a dead end, whereas the one on the right takes you to the next screen. Here, you just have to walk over to the next pipe, but you'll probably end up in a fight with the Stingers that are flying around here. When you pop up on the third screen, there's a clear path, as well as another pipe. Said pipe takes you to another spot, where there's a

Treasure Box containing a Flower Tab. When you take the path, you come across a spot with five pipes assembled in a circle, each of which has a Chewy that's being brought to life by a Shy Away. When each one comes alive, you can fight them, along with some other enemies that accompany them, and then enter the pipe. Each pipe takes you to a different section of an underground area, and each is different in its layout. The one at 12:00 in the circle is the most noteworthy, as its U-shaped chamber, full of Geckits and a Chomp Chomp, contains the path to Grate

Guy's Casino. After you defeat the latter on the chamber's opposite end, you can jump along the wall on the left and eventually activate a platform that you can use to scale the wall and find the path leading to the casino (this only works if you already got the Bright Card from Knife Guy). Three of the pipes, namely the two on the bottom and the one at 9:00, lead to chambers that are empty, save for Treasure Boxes that act as roulette machines... sometimes. Other times, they turn out to be another type of 

Treasure Box enemy, called Box Boy, and sometimes, they're both, so it's a roll of the dice as to which you'll get. The pipe at 3:00 leads down to a chamber with a definite Box Boy off to the left, as well as a Chow and a Geckit. At the top of the stairs and at the other end of the landing is a Trampoline that springs you to another section above ground, where you get a Treasure Box containing a Frog Coin. If you get too hasty, fight and defeat the Shy Away before he can bring the plants to life, he'll respawn if you leave the screen and then come back.

Taking the path beyond the pipes, you come across another Shy Away sprinkling water onto a Piranha Plant, only this is a special type called a Smilax. When you first battle this boss, it has only one mouth, but when you defeat it, the Shy Away comes in and sprinkles some more water, causing it to grow two heads. After you defeat them, he comes back and, you guessed it, the plant this time grows three heads. And once they're gone, he comes back yet again, this time with some nutrient-rich water that causes three heads to grown again but, this time, the middle head

becomes much bigger, earning it the name of Megasmilax. Honestly, though, this battle isn't too difficult. Each Smilax has 200 HP, with 100 Attack and 80 Defense, and 70 Magic Attack and 50 Magic Defense. They attack with Pollen Nap, Drain, and Flame. Megasmilax, on the other hand, does have much more HP, at 1,000, as well as more regular Attack at 140, and Magic Defense at 80, but both its regular Defense and Magic Attack don't change at all. While it still uses Drain, it eschews the other attacks for S'crow Bell, Petal Blast, and Flame Wall. Both

types of Smilax are vulnerable to ice attacks, meaning that Ice Bombs or Mallow's Snowy attack can come in handy. Even if those aren't an option, you can still easily take this boss down with regular attacks and by keeping your party members healthy. Once you've defeated it, the Shy Away freaks out, worrying about receiving punishment from someone called Queen Valentina in Nimbus Land. After he flies off, he leaves behind a piece of paper with the Seed that you later give to the gardener in Rose Town. When you 

go down the pipe that Smilax was growing out of, you come to a spot with a Brick Block floating in midair. If you hit it from beneath, a beanstalk grows up into the sky, and if you hit the block once more, Mario begins climbing.

This leads into that irritating climbing and jumping section I described at the beginning. There are some instructions to be found at the base of the first beanstalk, and it is a good idea to not always jump from the top of a vine, but that doesn't make things any easier. In some spots there are Birdies hovering about which, if you defeat them in battle, along with the Heavy Troopas that accompany them, turn into platforms that not only make jumping across the stalks easier, but are also sometimes mandatory to do so. On the second screen here are two paths of vines 

to climb. The one on the right takes you straight to Nimbus Land, but on the left, if you can make it across (like I said at the beginning, I've tried and tried, but can't get to it) and climb up the vines, you'll find some clouds with Treasure Boxes. The first has two containing a Frog Coin and a Rare Scarf, a type of armor for Princess Toadstool that boosts both her regular and Magic Defense; the second has two that each contain a Flower Tab. After this, you drop down to a cloud that serves as the entrance to some hot springs, but you can't use them yet. The Trampoline here takes you to the cloud serves as the entrance to Nimbus Land.

Grate Guy's Casino: Like the Pipe Vault and Yo'ster Isle, this stage is completely optional and has no impact on the main quest. It's not even much of a casino, as it's housed inside a small cottage, not unlike the Rose Town gardener's. Inside the front door is the actual entrance, guarded by a pair of Mushroom guys who are dressed like they're from the mafia! The casino itself consists of one room, with three games to play. You can play Blackjack for Frog Coins, with the game itself telling you how many you have when you're dealt your first two cards and when you draw

more. Not only do you lose if you over 21, but also if you and the dealer tie. The slot machine, which is actually one of those Treasure Boxes you've already come across, requires ten Coins to play each time, and you get a Frog Coin if you win. However, while those out in the stages will throw you a bone if you manage to match two symbols, you have to match three to win here or you get nothing. And the thing gets faster and faster if you play it a bunch of times in a row. And, finally, you can play Look Away with Grate Guy 

himself. You just press either left or right on the Control Pad, and hope you end up looking in the opposite direction from where Grate Guy points. If you both choose the same direction, you don't lose anything, and even if you win, you usually get junk like Wilt Shrooms and the like, but, sometimes, he will give you a really useful Item.

Nimbus Land

Nimbus Land: This is another one of my favorite stages, because of how intricate the story gets as it plays out. When you first arrive, you see the previously mentioned "Queen" Valentina (though she's not officially a queen) appear before the citizens at the castle's main entrance, announcing that, while their king is dying, the long lost "Prince Mallow" has been found. She then presents him to everyone, only for them to be surprised at how much he's "changed," as he's a big, fat, black bird wearing a helment. Regardless, Valentina also says that the prince has

asked her to marry him and she's agreed. Once they leave and the crowd disperses, Mallow comments what a coincidence it is that the long lost prince shares his name. Then, he says they should continue looking for the Star Pieces and you go about your business. If you talk to the citizens, many, again, mention how Mallow looks so different than he used to, as well as how Valentina has kind of taken over the kingdom. Also, the two Birdy guards at the castle door, not surprisingly, won't let you in if you interact with them. The Item Shop's inventory consists of, 

along with all of the now expected inventory, weapons such as the Mega Glove for Mario, the War Fan for Princess Toadstool, the Hand Cannon for Geno, and the Sticky Glove for Mallow, and various "Fuzzy" pieces of clothing that act as armor for everyone (except Bowser, yet again; I guess him and "Fuzzy" don't mix). There's an invisible Treasure Box with a Frog Coin in the back of the shop, but you have to jump in exactly the right spot, which is stupidly hard. Also, if you stay at the Inn, you're 

given the chance to sleep on the "Dream Cushion," which costs sixty Coins (thirty Coins to stay there to begin with, and another thirty to use the cusion itself). But, it's worth it, as it causes Mario to have some truly vivid dreams, which range from innocuous, like Yoshi or the Chancellor wishing him luck, to bizarre, like Chef Torte at Marrymore planning to cook him. The best one is when he dreams that Toad reveals himself to be a Greaper, and

then wakes up to find the real Toad standing at his bedside. Mario freaks out and runs to the opposite corner, much to Toad's confusion. He gives you a Red Essence to try to calm your nerves.

Eventually, one of the townspeople points you to the home of a sculptor named Garro, who used to do all the statue work for King Nimbus. When you walk in, you see a statue that looks exactly like Mallow, which he comments on. Garro says it's of the king when he was young, and is then stunned when he sees Mallow himself. He confirms that Mallow, big surprise, is the real missing prince, which absolutely floors him. Garro then suspects that the king isn't really ill and that Valentina is up to something. Mallow decides to rush inside the castle to save his parents but, after the

guards refuse to let him enter, he comes back, despondent. Garro comes up with a plan and disguises Mario as a new statue for the castle's interior. He then takes him, along with a Valentina statue, to the main entrance and they manage to get by the guards, although one becomes suspicious of Mario and jabs at him with a spear. Garro claims it's a statue of Valentina's nephew, "Mariotta," and that's enough to get him through. And when Valentina herself sees Mario, demanding to know what "THIS ugly thing" is, Garro comes up with another cover story, saying 

it's a new piece, which he calls "A Plumber's Lament." After a long, flowery description, Valentina decides she loves it, claiming to consider herself something of an art lover. Once Garro is gone, she calls in Dodo, the fat flunky she's passing off as the prince, and orders him to set the statues up and polish them. After he puts them on their pedestals in another room, you briefly regain control, long enough to walk into the next room and use the Save Block. But, when you try to go through the next door, you hear 

Valentina again order Dodo to polish the statues. Mario quickly rushes back to his pedestal, leading to a fun mini-game where Dodo, instead of polishing them, decides to take out his frustration by pecking them. You can keep yourself from being pecked by jumping just as Dodo rears back to do so, and he briefly moves on, only to then do a hilarious double take at the screen when he realizes what just happened (like I said before, the music makes this even funnier). When you dodge his pecks a second 

time, he moves faster, all the more convinced that something isn't right. After you dodge several more pecks, he tries to catch you out by leaving the room, coming in another way (as in the bottom of the screen), and quickly coming back around for another peck. 

If do you get pecked, Mario falls off the pedestal, and Dodo runs out of the room and tells Valentina that one of the statues is "ticklish." She threatens to have his feathers, "Plucked for my pillow!", and sends him back into the room. The pattern then repeats the same way it did before, and if you manage to avoid getting pecked again, Dodo leaves and, as a prize, you get one of his feathers, which increases Speed for anyone who equips it. If you get pecked a second time, Dodo runs back to Valentina, who tells him to leave her

alone and go give the statue one good peck if he's so concerned. When this happens, it leads into a boss fight, which is the first of two optional fights with Dodo. He's not too difficult, although he does come with 800 HP, 140 Attack and 100 Defense, and 60 Magic Defense. In addition to his regular pecks, he uses two special attacks: Multistrike, where he deals several pecks in rapid succession, and Flutter Hush, which causes Mute. However, he has barely any Magic Attack, with just a rating of 9, he's vulnerable

against Mario's fireball attacks, and most regular attacks do a fair amount of damage as well. When you've won, he simply flutters away and runs out of the room. Mario loses his statue disguise in the battle, but manages to keep it if you can avoid Dodo's pecks. However, in that scenario, you don't get far before a couple of disgruntled Birdy guards decide to take their frustration out on one of the "statues," i.e. you, leading them to unmask and pull you into a battle.

The castle is a winding maze, with various routes that often merge with each other. But, despite whichever ones you choose to take in this first part, most of them lead to the same central corridor. When you exit the room with the Save Block, you come to a hallway with paths leading off in three other directions, with two statues flanking the one to the left (this is also where those two guards unmask you if you don't fight Dodo). That path leads to the corridor just outside the castle entrance (the Birdy guards who were outside are no longer there, so you can go to the Inn if you

need to replinish yourself), and the door off to the left from the entrance leads to a hallway that eventually dead ends beneath one room's upper level (there's also a Treasure Box with a Flower Tab here). Said upper level can be reached by taking the path across from where you enter that room with the two statues, and it leads to that central corridor I mentioned. The door to the right of those statues opens onto a winding corridor which leads to a small room with a Treasure Box containing a Mushroom and a Birdy statue, and

beyond that is the central corridor. Speaking of that "statue," it and a lot of the others are actually real Birdies in disguise, who attack you when you least expect it. You also have to watch out for undisguised Birdies and Sling Guys roaming the halls, as well as Pinwheels here and there. Said Pinwheels, in addition to flying at you like Frisbees, are linked to the good one in Monstro Town that was acting as a fan, meaning that, if you set it to "Blast," they'll be in that same mode, making it impossible to get through

certain doors and forcing you to find another route. And when you reach that central corridor and the rooms beyond it, you start running into evil Shamans and Bluebirds. Getting back to that corridor, the door on its right end eventually leads to another dead end (and another Treasure Box with a Flower Tab), while the one on the left leads through a couple of corridors, a flight of steps, and a room guarded by a Jawful where Valentina has imprisoned several people who worked in the palace (though, most of them don't act

like it). If you talk to them, you'll receive a Flower Jar and a Master Key, which will prove significant later on. There's also a welcome Save Block in here. And not only is there a hidden Treasure Box with a Frog Coin right outside the door, but there's a spot where you can walk off to the left and find another one. However, where you need to go is through the door in that corridor that's guarded by that Heavy Troopa, who brings along two friends in the battle.

If you talked to the people in that room, you already know that there's a giant egg behind the door the Heavy Troopa is guarding. When you walk through it, you find that Shy Away from Bean Valley sprinkling water on the egg, when he spots you. He tries to go out the room's back door, but it's locked. As he flies up to the ceiling, the egg itself seems to speak, and if you interact with it, it'll ask you to play with it. You have to agree to in order to proceed, and this leads into a boss battle. At first, all you have to do is attack the egg's shell (called "Shelly" onscreen), which 

cracks with every hit, and eventually, it breaks open to reveal Birdo. She has 777 HP, 160 Attack and 130 Defense, and her attacks consist of spitting eggs at the party members. She has no real weaknesses but, when she begins using singular eggs called Eggberts, you can bounce them back at her by going into Defense mode, something else that was mentioned in that one room. Really, Birdo isn't that hard, and once you've defeated her, she somehow goes back into her eggshell, and also gives you another key, which you use to unlock the door behind her egg (you can't 

reach the Shy Away, who's still hovering near the ceiling). Beyond it is the upper level of that dead end from earlier, and you have to get past a Pinwheel and a Jawful, as well as Bluebird down below, to continue on (you can also jump atop the Treasure Box you opened before to unlock another one with a Frog Coin). Up next is an empty hall with a door on the left wall, with a note next to it that claims King Nimbus is resting. Mallow, realizing his parents are behind the door, tries to open it, only for it to turn out to be

locked. Bowser offers to break it down, like he did earlier, but Mallow stops him, causing him to face-plant on the floor. He says that they shouldn't make so much noise, in case his dad really is bedridden, and, rather, they should find Valentina. Bowser rants at Mallow about what he did, but decides to drop it. That Shy Away comes in, calling for Valentina, and only glances at Mario before continuing on. Following him, you find another door guarded by a Heavy Troopa (once again, you actually have to fight three of them), and behind that door is Valentina.

When you walk in, Shy Away tells Valentina and Dodo that Mario has arrived, and from his description, Valentina realizes that Mario was the "statue" Garro delivered earlier. Just when she boasts that she has the key to the room where the king is, Dodo notices Mario and attempts to warn Valentina, though he has to work to make her pay attention to him. When they see him, Mallow demands the key and rushes at Valentina, but stumbles and falls. When asked, he reveals that he's the real prince, and Valentina, mainly because she claims Mallow is 

being "rude," runs out the door. The Shy Away follows after her, and Dodo soon follows suit as well. You get control back and, beyond the door, in the corner of the hallway, is a Save Block. You then chase the villains through this winding hallway, which has two Bluebird guards, and into the next two, straightforward hallways, which are also full of guards. What happens next depends on the course of action you take. Because he's so fat and slow, you easily catch up with Dodo, and when you do, you can fight him again. The only difference from that first, 

optional battle is his HP, which has gone up to 1,000; otherwise, all previous stats apply (strangely, you only get 40 Experience Points for defeating him this time, as opposed to 70 before). The other, and better, way to do this is activate a hidden platform in the first straight hallway in order to reach a Treasure Box containing an Invincibility Star. Grabbing that, you can just rush ahead and knock Dodo out of the way before continuing on. Reaching the end of that hallway and going through the door, Mario randomly 

finds himself on a platform floating up in the sky. He falls, eventually landing on the cloud where you find the entrance to the hot springs (if you talk with the guards, they say that Dodo is currently using them) and from there, you just have to use the Trampolines to make it back up to Nimbus Land. When you do, you immediately find Valentina, who's surrounded by townspeople who pepper her with questions about the king, queen, and prince, until she finally loses her patience and makes everyone jump away from her.

Mario then shows up and she calls for Dodo, who, like before, takes a long time to show himself (Valentina grumbles, "That bird has a permanent brain cramp!"). Mario steps up to Valentina, and that's when the fight starts.

It's only at the start of the battle that Dodo comes running in. Under Valentina's orders, he whisks away whichever party member is in the middle for a one-on-one fight. All of the stats from that second optional battle with him apply here, but if he defeats the lone party member, it's Game Over, so you have to take it seriously. This is where his Flutter Hush move becomes particularly annoying, so you'd best have plenty of Items to counteract it, as well as keep your HP and FP full. Once his HP is depleted enough, he runs away, followed by the party member.

However, it takes a few turns for them both to rejoin the main battle with Valentina, so Mario and the third part member initially have to hold their own. Valentina has 2000 HP, 120 Attack and 80 Defense, and 80 Magic Attack and 60 Magic Defense, with no weaknesses. She mainly fights with spells, using nine altogether: Petal Blast, Aurora Flash, Light Beam, Crystal, Solidify, Diamond Saw, Drain Beam, Blizzard, and Water Blast. Once Dodo and the second party member return, it's best to concentrate on one

of the villains, while also maybe throwing in some attacks that hit multiple targets, as you only have to deplete one's HP to win. Personally, I always concentrate on Valentina, since she's the bigger threat (incidentally, as proof of how perverted some game designers are, her boobs jiggle when you hit her). The battle ends with Dodo carrying Valentina off, and, after they've left, Mallow laments about how they seemingly got away with the key they needed. Of course, it then comes falling back down, whacking 

him on the head. When they see it, Mallow picks it up and rushes inside the castle. In a funny bit of business, Mario, knowing Mallow all too well, whips out an umbrella, anticipating the downpour that does come from the emotional reunion happening inside. Mallow then comes back out and Mario follows after him.

Mallow introduces Mario, as well as the others, to King and Queen Nimbus. This cutscene goes on for a bit, with the King becoming absolutely starstruck over meeting everyone and asking for their autographs, as his wife tells him to quit embarrassing Mallow (as per usual, Mario has to show off his jumping skills). Eventually, the Queen mentions how a star fell into the Barrel Volcano a while back, while the King warns you about the "Czar Dragon" which inhabits it. The Queen also suggests they seek out Hinopio when they enter the volcano. If you look 

around the castle now, you'll find that the townspeople are once again allowed to walk about within it, the servants are back to work (if you talk with some of the guards at the doors, they flat out call Mallow a crybaby!), and all of the Valentina statues have been replaced with those of the Sing. Speaking of statues, the room that housed Birdo's egg now has statues of the entire party. And if you go into the room where the King was held captive, you find the guard who gave you the Master Key. If you talk to him again, he now gives you a Flower Jar. As for the 

kingdom itself, if you look around it, you can eventually find an invisible path around the house near the upper-right corner. Here, you find that Shy Away again and, in exchange for letting him go, he gives you the Fertilizer that you need to take to the gardener in Rose Town, along with the Seed from Bean Valley. And if you go inside that aforementioned house, you'll find Croco, who's in the middle of robbing it. As you confront him, he boasts about a device that tells him where treasures are and runs for it, only to slam into the wall on his way out. 

He doesn't realize that he dropped said device, the Signal Ring, which you can equip to hunt down the remaining hidden Treasure Boxes. Finally, you now have access to the hot springs, with Mallow getting the guards to let you through. The springs replinish your HP and FP if you take a dip in them, but if you stay in there too long, Mario's face turns red and he jumps out (it doesn't hurt you, though). The path to the right leads into the volcano, which you literally fall into.

Before we move on, I'd like to mention that, if you want to know what happened to Valentina, head back to Booster Tower and go all the way to the top, to the balcony where Princess Toadstool was imprisoned. There, if you go to the door, you see her, as she's being confronted by Booster and his Snifits, and demands to know why she should marry Booster. He whispers something in her ear, then walks over to the the balcony's railing. Whatever he said changed Valentina's tune, as she walks over to him and stands beside him, as the Snifts turn around, looking 

excited. However, Booster now seems to regret what he said, as he inches away from her, and she closes the distance again. When that cutscene is over, Mario, very quickly, backs away from the door, apparently disturbed by what he just saw! And if you're wondering what happened to Dodo, you will see him again, and in an unexpected capacity at that.

Barrel Volcano: Upon entering the volcano, you'll find that it's another much more straightforward stage, at least for the most part. There are some spots where you can take a couple of different paths, though it never gets at intricate as in the castle. In the first chamber, there's a trail of small platforms to the right that you jump across in order to reach a spot where you find two Treasure Boxes, each containing a Flower Tab. There are also some Pyrospheres who emerge from the lava and will attack you if you dawdle around. They, along with the Magmuses, are 

the enemies you most commonly face as you go from one chamber to the next, at least initially. You hop up some steps in the first chamber to find the opening to the next, which is a spot with steps that contain both a Magmus and a Vomer. The chamber beyond that has another box with a Flower Tab, as well as one filled with Coins, and some Magmuses and a pool of lava. The next chamber has a box with an Invincibility Star, which comes in handy, as up ahead is a spot with a Corkpedite and some Oerlikons atop some steps, and beyond them is some more steps, with a pair of

Vomers and a Magmus. The chamber beyond them has a Frog Coin floating above some lava, to which you have to jump at just the right angle in order to get it. It's the first of a handful of such Coins to be found in the stage. Case in point, the next chamber, where you have a series of rock platforms spanning across some lava, with Pyrospheres coming out of it. At the other end, a Frog Coin is above the entrance to the next chamber, and you have to walk through the opening, then go back out, and jump into the lava to

be propelled up to where you can get the Coin. The next chamber has some Donut Blocks going across a bit of lava, which you need to jump across if you want to get another Frog Coin. Yet another one is found on the opposite end of the room, which also has a couple of Vomers. Beyond that, you go through the lower section of a chamber where a Stumpet is producing some Magmuses, and you can actually battle the Stumpet at this spot by jumping at him 

from below. The lower path leads to a spot with some Treasure Boxes housing a Flower Tab and a Frog Coin, as well as a Save Block. The path off to the right from the Save Block leads to the upper level of that previous chamber and, if you, for whatever reason, went back out to the one with the Donut Blocks, you might have to fight the Stumpet again (you can walk behind him without touching him, though).

The next chamber has some more steps, with some Oerlikons and a Vomer. Beyond that is yet another chamber with some steps, this one leading to another spot with a Corkpedite and some Oerlikons, and you do actually have to battle the former in order to move on. There's another Stumpet in the room beyond, and while you can get around him, the Magmuses he produces tend to blend in with the environment. More Oerlikons and another Vomer follow in the next room, which leads to the entrance to Hinopio's shop. Hinopio himself greets you at the entrance and 

invites you in. Here, you can take a breather, and buy some Items from the "Hino Shop," as well as some much needed Fire Armor for all five party members. Again, he does run an "Inn," which costs thirty Coins to spend the night, and consists of you sleeping on some crates (still does the job, though). And outside his shop is a Save Block, which comes in handy for what's just up ahead. First, there's a bridge of Donut Blocks spanning over a stretch of lava, with Pyrospheres jumping out of it. This is where the animation of Mario immediately jumping out of the 

lava with a burning rear end goes from funny to irritating, as he'll jump all the way back to the start of the bridge, no matter where you fell in. On top of that, you have the falling Donut Blocks, which force you to walk out of the chamber and back inside in order to make one respawn if it falls completely. And, if you get pulled into a battle while in the middle of a jump, it can cause you to fall when you come out of it. The chamber beyond this starts with a cutscene where a large group of Pyrospheres come together and form into the Czar Dragon. This guy may be kind of

dopey-looking, but he's really quite a formidable opponent. He has 1400 HP, 160 Attack and 100 Defense, and 120 Magic Attack and 70 Magic Defense. He not only attacks with Flame Wall, as expected, but also Water Blast and Iron Maiden, the latter of which both damages a party member and causes Fear. He occasionally summons some small orbs called Helios, which he fires at various members of the group, so it's best to use a multi-enemy attack to destroy them quickly. As the dragon is vulnerable 

to ice attacks, it's a good idea to have Mallow as part of the group, as his Snowy attack comes in handy, as do any Ice Bombs you may have. When you beat the Czar Dragon, he goes down into the lava, only to resurrect in an undead form called Zombone. In this guise, he now has 1800 HP, 190 Attack, and 100 Magic Defense, and uses Scream, which also causes Fear, as well as the magic attacks of Blast, Boulder, and Storm. The tradeoff is that he's much more vulnerable, as his regular Defense drops to 60 (his 

Magic Attack also goes down to 80), he becomes susceptible to jump and thunder attacks, and the Pure Water Item also now works against him. Once you finally defeat him, it's best to go back and save, despite how annoying that bridge is to get across, because there's another, tougher boss battle just around the corner.

In the chamber beyond the dragon, you find the sixth, red Star Piece, just sitting there. But, right when you think this is going to be a cinch to collect, like the one on Star Hill, it gets snatched away as soon as it's within your grasp. The thief, or, rather, thieves, turn out to be the Axem Rangers, five of Smithy's agents. They appear one by one, each with a flash of corresponding color (be careful if you're epileptic), and proclaim how awesome they are, before running off with the star. You follow them into the next chamber, where, after they roast Mario's appearance,

run for it in order to get to "the Blade." You give chase, getting glimpses of the Rangers as they blaze through the chambers (the Red Ranger drops the Star Piece at one point, which Yellow admonishes him), until you reach a Trampoline that transports all of you to the top of the volcano. At first, it looks as though you have them cornered up there, only for the Blade, which is actually a flying fortress, to appear in the background. They jump onto it, followed by Mario, leading into one of the game's toughest battles. 

As goofy-looking as they are, the Axem Rangers have serious attack power, and each of them comes with their own stats. Pink is the weakest, at 400 HP, with 120 Attack and 80 Defense, 80 Magic Attack and 100 Magic Defense. Like Princess Toadstool, she has a tendency to heal both herself and the others, meaning she's the one you want to take down first. She's vulnerable to fire attacks. Green has 450 HP and stronger magic stats, with 90 Magic attack and 120 Magic Defense. He uses the Mute-inducing Elegy, as well as the serious magic attacks of Meteor Blast, 

Static E!, and Solidify, which hit all party members, meaning you also want to put him out of commission as soon as possible. However, his regular Attack and Defense stats are weaker than Pink's, at 110 and 60 respectively, and he's vulnerable to ice attacks. Once they're both out of the fight, you can focus on the others with mostly regular attacks. Black has 550 HP, 140 Attack and 120 Defense, and also very high Speed, at 35, enabling him to attack two or even three times in a turn. Said attacks usually consist of Bomb Toss and Spritz Bomb. However, his magic stats are 

pathetic, with just 4 on Magic Attack and 40 on Magic Defense, and he's weak against thunder. Yellow has 600 HP and some serious regular Attack and Defense stats, at 170 and 130. He attacks with Bubble Shot and Body Slam, the latter of which he uses in response to being hit with any regular attack. However, his Magic Attack and Magic Defense are only slightly better than Black's, at 6 and 60, and he's vulnerable to Mario's jump attacks. Finally, there's the leader, Red, who has 800 HP, 150 Attack and 100 

Defense, and can use Vigor Up! to further increase those stats. His magic stats are so-so, with 24 Magic Attack and 80 Magic Defense, and, like Green, he's vulnerable to ice. It's best to have the princess and Geno take part in this battle, with the former's healing abilities and the latter's multi-target attacks, particularly Geno Flash. You can also have Mario use the Ultra Jump on all of the Rangers for good measure. (What's funny is that, each time you defeat one of the Rangers, they'll throw some flimsy excuse 

for their giving up at Red, who snaps back at them. Pink: "My makeup's running!" "Then change brands!" Green: "I have a headache!" "You're totally out of shape." Black: "I broke my shades!" "Serves you right!" Yellow: "I'm hungry!" "Chew on your tongue!" That one really broke me up. And if you defeat Red himself before the other Rangers, he exclaims, "Oh, my head is spinning!") Once all the Rangers have been defeated, Red declares that it's time to finish the battle, and goes to activate Blade's 

Breaker Beam. Said beam hits all three party members and does serious damage, anywhere from 100 to 150. On top of that, the Breaker Beam itself has 999 HP. The only strategy is to just keep attacking like crazy, preferably with thunder attacks, and healing when necessary, as well as to keep one party member close to full health so they can use Pick Me Ups on those who faint. Fortunately, after it's been fired, the beam has to recharge, giving you time to get some more hits in. When you've won, Red will jump 

down, declaring that they're invincible, only for Blade to begin shaking violently. While Mario and the others get off the quickly sinking ship, the Rangers go down with it. You then get a cutscene where it crashes behind the volcano (again, with a lot of flashing), and Mario claims the Star Piece atop it.

The answer to that question about the last Star Piece should be pretty obvious, since Bowser's Keep is the only place left to look. To get there, you have to return to Nimbus Land and speak with the King and Queen again. When you do, the Queen rightly deduces where the last Star Piece is, but Mallow brings up how Bowser's Keep is inaccessible. The King then suggests they use the Royal Bus to reach it, which the Queen says they'll have prepared by the time you leave. The "Bus," which is actually a big, floating cloud with wheels, can be found in this spot 

off to the left of Garro's house. After you talk with the guy there, the Bus comes floating in and, after Mario and Mallow jump on it, there's a cutscene where it flies them to the entrance to the castle, as some onlookers, including Toad, Raz and Raini, and some Moleville residents, watch from Vista Hill.

Smithy Factory

Bowser's Keep: As soon as you arrive, Bowser declares that he's going to get his revenge on Smithy. The first part of the castle is laid out in the same way it was during the Prologue, but with different, stronger enemies, like Terra Cottas, Gu Goombas, and Malakoopas. Also, the second half of the bridge spanning over the lava has been replaced with Donut Blocks. When you enter the throne room, there's now an opening on the back wall, leading to a section on the castle's exterior where the screen is blacked out, save for an iris around you. This makes it easy for the

enemies here to jump you and catch you off-guard, particularly some Gu Goombas that jump out at you from behind some statues. But, on the flip side, if Bowser is in the party, many of the enemies will immediately flee a battle when they see him. Beyond that black-out section is a room housing a Save Block, and if you go around the left corner of the door you came through, you find a hidden section with two Teasure Boxes, one of which is filled with a bunch of Coins, and the other with a Mushroom. Croco's also 

here, and he offers to sell you some Items, but they're nothing all that vital (he even has the fire armors that you likely bought from Hinopio and don't need anymore). In the next room is a section that I hate just about as much as that 3-D Maze in the Sunken Ship. You're faced with six doors, each of which leads to one of three different types of challenges: Action Courses, Battle Courses, and Puzzle Courses. There are two of each type, three sets of challenges in each course, and you have to complete four entire 

challenges in order to move on. You also don't know what kind of a course you're getting until you walk through one of the doors, they're randomized through every playthrough, and once a challenge begins, you don't have the option to go back. That's all what I hate the most about it, especially since I often end up in a challenge that I suck at. If you fail a challenge, you don't get Game Over, but you do wind up back at the doors and have to try again. Thankfully, you do get a reward for completing each course (each is a new weapon for one of the characters).

The Action Courses are the hardest, as you're given ten attempts to get through a set of rooms filled with various obstacles. Action Course 1-1 consists of an invisible, maze-like path that stretches over a room filled with lava. The path becomes visible for a split-second every time you jump, as demonstrated by a group of Terrapins who immediately scramble away. There are also some Coins suspended in the air above the path, as well as Treasure Boxes that do contain some useful Items, like Rock Candy, Royal Syrup, Fright Bomb, and Ice Bomb, but I mostly concentrate

on trying to get to the other side, as some of these Items are placed a bit out of the way. Action 1-2 has you cross another room of lava, this time using small, gray platforms that move back and forth across it. The platforms stop whenever you jump, so it's not as difficult to get on them as you might think, but this is another challenge made more difficult by the isometric angle. Again, there are Treasure Boxes containing stuff like Max Mushroom, Red Essence, Fire Bomb, and a Flower Tab, but, even more so than the first, it's best not to worry about them. Action 1-3

recreates the first stage of the original Donkey Kong arcade game, as you have to make your way up a series of stone paths using platforms found at the ends, while dodging barrels that are being rolled down at you by a Guerrilla up at the top. When you reach him, the Guerrilla runs off and you move on, getting the Super Slap weapon for Princess Toadstool for completing this course. Action Course 2-1 has you jumping across lava again, this time with a series of platforms that rise and fall beneath a long, stone overhang, making it even more difficult than those

from before. There's actually a Treasure Box with a Kerokero Cola atop the overhang, which the last platform allows you to reach, but by the time I reach the end, I usually just want to get through the door and move on. Action 2-2 has you jump on a large, iron ball and use it to get from one side of a room to the other, as you have to use the ball to reach the raised door behind a pillar. The catch is that there are two Bob-Ombs roaming around, and they blow up and make you lose a turn if they touch them while

you're on the ball. Also, when you're on it, the controls are reversed, making it more difficult to get around the Bob-Ombs, whose movements are erratic anyway. The Treasure Boxes found atop the pillars in the room contain Rock Candy, Max Mushroom, Pick Me Up, and Flower Tabs, and they're easier to get to than those in the lava rooms, as are the Coins. Speaking of which, Action 3-3 has you using platforms to cross lava again but, this time, you use the type where one platform circles the other that

you're currently standing on. Again, the angle makes this really difficult, and even though there are plenty of boxes in here containing useful Items (Kerokero Cola, Royal Syrup, Fire Bomb, Pick Me Up, and two Flower Tabs), it's not worth trying to get them. In fact, hitting one of them can cause you to miss the other platform and fall into the lava. When you complete this course, you get the Sonic Cymbals weapon for Mallow.

The Battle Courses are the easiest and the most straightforward: each set has you marathon your way through various enemies summoned by Magikoopa as you head down a castle corridor. In Battle 1-1, you taken on five Gu Goombs; two Malakoopas and a Tub-O-Troopa; two Big Boos and two Orbisons; and five Sling Shys. Battle 1-2 consists of two Chewies and two Shy Aways; a Mr. Kipper and two Muckles; two Amanitas and one Orbison; and two Grim Reapers and one Glum Reaper. Battle 1-3 has three Pyrospheres; three Lakitus; two Zeostars and two

Shamans; and six Shamans. The reward for completing it is the Star Gun weapon for Geno. Battle 2-1 has four Terra Cottas; two Oerlikons and one Star Cruster; one Sackit and two Big Berthas; and two Chows and one Forky. Battle 2-2 consists of one Alley Rat and two Armored Ants; three Bloobers and one Star Cruster; five Stingers; and two Geckits and a Chained Kong. And Battle 3-3 has one Rob-Omb and two Big Berthas; four Vomers; two Magmuses and two Pulsars; and finally, a Treasure Box enemy called Chester, which spawns the dragon-like enemies called Bahamutts. The prize here is the Drill Claw for Bowser.

The Puzzle Courses are the ones I hate the most, as I almost always screw up at some point, and unlike the Battle Courses, if you fail one time, you lose right then and there. They're all hosted by a green Hammer Brother called Dr. Topper, and some of them get more mathematical or analytical than a young kid would want, especially when they're not in school. Because of how tough they are, that's probably why you get Rock Candy as a prize for completing both courses. Puzzle 1-1 involves you and Dr. Topper playing a game where you compete to avoid getting the 21st 

Coin out of a Treasure Box. You each take a turn and hit the box up to four times, all while keeping score yourself. As the Player's Guide says, it's a good idea not to let Dr. Topper start a turn with Coin No. 17, as he'll always take four and leave you with No. 21. Puzzle 1-2 has you play "Magic Buttons," where there are sixteen Switches on the floor and you have to turn them all off. However, they're connected to each other in groups of four, and you have to turn off the right one to deactivate the three around it as well, doing so

for all four groups. Sounds complicated but, actually, when you realize the groups of four are arranged in T-patterns, with the Switch in the middle of the top of each "T" being the one you need to hit, it's quite easy (though, I have to admit, the Player's Guide flat-out told me what patterns to press). Puzzle 1-3, however, is another story. You have to play "Ball Solitaire," where you kick iron balls over each other, like in Checkers, until there's only one left of this initial group of sixteen (or, rather, fifteen, as Dr. Topper gets

rid of one before you begin). First, I couldn't even figure out how to kick the balls, and once I did, I had to figure out how to do so in a way where they don't get rid of too many at a time and eventually leave me with none. And you also lose if a ball flies into a space that's already occupied. It's definitely one of the most difficult of the puzzles, and even the Player's Guide wasn't able to make it clear to me the first few times. 

Puzzle 2-1 has Dr. Topper quiz you, asking you twelve questions about the game ("Where was the 3rd Star Piece found?", "What color are the curtains in Mario's house?", etc.). The goal is to make the platform you're standing on rise eight steps, and you go up one with each correct answer. However, you go down two with every wrong one, and since you only get twelve questions in all, you can only afford to get just a few wrong. And just to add to the pressure, you only have five seconds to choose your answer from three choices. Puzzle 2-2 is even worse, as you have

to guess how many barrels are in a pile, including those you can't see because of the camera angle. There's a pile that's already there when you first start, but it turns out that's not the one you have to count, so it gives you false confidence. You have ten seconds to figure it out, which is made nerve-racking by the timer counting down and the dinging that goes with it. And even if you get it right, you have to do the same with an even larger pile, which you get twenty seconds to figure out. Even though I'm pretty good at 

picking up on patterns and doing multiplcation in my head, the pressure from the counting down and the dinging often causes me to mess up. And finally, Puzzle 3-3 has you talk with four enemies who competed in a triathlon in order to figure out who finished in which position. May sound straightforward, but here are the answers they give: "I outrode (...) on my bike, and (...) was never able to catch me," "I fell into 4th place during the bike race, but finally ended up in the same place,"I placed the 

same in the swimming and cycling events, but 2 others beat me in the marathon," and, "I came in 3rd for swimming." Whichever character gives which clue is randomized, as you probably guessed, given the blank names in the statements, and you also have to interact with them twice: first to figure out what order they came in, and then again, in that order, to give Dr. Topper your answer.

Once you complete the four required courses, you take a path off to the right of where you claim your final prize. Mario finds himself in midair, but falls a short distance, landing next to a Save Block. In the next room is Magikoopa, who's under Smithy's control, and challenges you to a fight. He's something of a mini-boss, with 1600 HP, 100 Attack and 60 Defense, and 120 Magic Attack and 100 Magid Defense. He fights with magic spells like Blast, Bolt, Flame Wall, Willy Wisp, Solidify, and Water Blast, and also summons enemies like Bahamutts,

Punchinello's King Bomb, and a clone of Jinx (not nearly as tough as the real Jinx, thankfully) to protect him; in other words, you can't attack Magikoopa directly again until his protectors have been defeated. It's not a difficult fight, overall, and when you defeat him, Magikoopa reverts to normal, his robe going from red back to the standard blue. To make up for the trouble he's caused, he creates a Treasure Box that will never run out of Coins, and will rejuvenate your HP and FP when you talk with him. You're then faced with two doors. The one on the left leads to one more 

encounter with Croco, who, again, offers to sell you some Items. However, not only are most of them kind of pointless at this stage, unless you're desperate, but the armor he offers isn't much stronger than any you probably already have. When you leave the room, he randomly says, "See ya!", which is a tad bit off-putting, and, if you go back in, he's standing by the door, as if eavesdropping on you. Beyond the door to the right, there's a stone path you take where you have to avoid some Thwomps that are continuously 

pounding it, as well as some Bullet Bills that are being fired from the opposite end (there's nothing shooting them when you get over, though). If you're hit by one of the latter, you get pulled into battle with a pair of Big Berthas, and the force of the Thwomps can also freeze you in your tracks, making it easier to get hit. 

Beyond this door is the room with the chandeliers, where you fought Bowser in the prologue (apparently, Smithy did some remodeling and had it moved farther back into the castle). Here, you fight another mini-boss: Boomer, who's dressed like a samurai. Like with Bowser, you both stand on chandeliers, which are now being held up by some poor Shy Guys. Boomer has 2000 HP, 200 Attack and 140 Defense, and attacks with Skewer, as well as the magic spells Storm, Blast, and Blizzard. What's most notable about him is his habit of continually changing the color of

his armor during the battle, which affects his weaknesses. When it's red, he's weak against special attacks, but when it turns blue, it's best to switch to regular attacks. Also, whenever you hit him with whatever he's weak against at a given point, he often counters with an attack called Shaker, which is instantly fatal if you don't block it correctly. It's a good idea to have Princess Toadstool attempt to use her Mute ability on Boomer to keep him from doing that. He's actually not too hard, and you can take him 

down quickly if you justwhale on him with whatever his respective weakness is. When the screen suddenly flashes, that means you've won, as Boomer claims to suffer an asthma attack, then cuts the chandelier's rope and drops with it. The Shy Guy holding it, who's called a "Chandeli-Ho" (no, I'm not joking), cries for him, but then implies that he won't die from it (well, we don't see Boomer again, so...). Meanwhile, the Chandeli-Ho holding up your chandelier offers to take you to the top of the castle, and when he does, he takes you up to the ceiling, before stopping suddenly and sending you flying up onto the roof.

You immediately head into the next boss battle, which is with the giant sword, Exor (which I thought was actually Smithy when I was a kid, as the Player's Guide refers to him as such early on, as did that commercial). This fight is kind of complicated, as you initially have three different targets to choose from: both eyes, which are said to be protecting Exor, who's actually the horned skull at the top of the sword's hilt (and which never actually attacks itself), and the mouth, which is randomly called "Neosquid" (in the Switch remake, that bizarre name is removed). You 

have to put one of the eyes, which have 300 and 500 HP between them, as well as their own individual stats and attacks, out of commission. The Right Eye is the more annoying one, as it not only has the 500 HP but also high Magic Attack, at 82, not to mention 128 regular Attack and 100 Defense. It uses a variety of spells: Bolt, Diamond Saw, Flame Stone, Dark Star, Mega Drain, and Blast. But, at the same time, its Magic Defense is only 36. The Left Eye, on the other hand, has less HP, but much higher regular Attack and Defense stats, at 153 and 130, as well as stronger

Magic Defense, at 80. However, its Magic Attack is only 47, and it instead uses status-affecting special attacks like Venom Drool, S'Crow Bell, and Gunk Ball. Both eyes are vulnerable to Mario's jump and fire attacks, and if they start spiraling, that means they're incapacitated. However, they heal after a few turns, so you have to keep repeating the process. It's not necessary to take out Neosquid in order to reach Exor, but it helps, as it's rather formidable in and of itself. It has 800 HP, 180 regular Attack, and 86 

Magic Attack. It uses a mixture of magic and special attacks, with the former including Water Blast, Flame Wall, Static E!, Corona, Aurora Flash, and Solidify, while the latter are Lulla-Bye and Carni-Kiss. Its regular and Magic Defense are kind of lacking, at 80 and 50. What's hilarious is, if Geno is in the group, there's a way to defeat Exor in one hit, despite his 1800 HP. If you use Geno Whirl and score a Timed Hit at a precise moment, you can inflict 9,999 points of damage, the result of a programming error. When the mouth drops open and the characters are sucked in by a red beam, you've won.

Smithy Factory: Mario and friends land in a gloomy, creepy, mechanized dimension that acts as the gate between Mario's world and Smithy's. Upon arriving, Geno realizes this and figures they'll find Smithy himself if they keep on going. Bowser, however, decides, now that he's reclaimed his castle, he doesn't need to continue on... until Geno points out that, because this gate is literally within his castle, Smithy could always reclaim it, unless he's defeated. Realizing this, Bowser reconsiders, under the pretense of wanting to settle his score with Smithy. If you have

any loose ends you need to tie up before heading into the final battle, you'd best do it now, as the Trampoline here is the only way you can get back to the real world. During the first few sections, you have to cross these "screw bridges" by jumping onto the actual screw bit, then hopping up and down to make it move; if you fall off, you can jump bounce back up to where you fell using a Trampoline. You come across a Save Block in the second section, and the third has you cross over more screw bridges while avoiding Glum Reapers that float back and forth across them,

as well as Ameboids on the platforms connecting them. There are two paths you can take here, but they all lead to the spot where you can go on to the next screen. Speaking of which, you have to hit a Switch on the platform's upper-left corner to create a path across from it, while avoiding Ameboids that drop down from a ledge above the Switch. Beyond that is a spot with another Save Block, as well as the game's final hidden Treasure Box, which contains a Mushroom. In the next section, there is a Treasure 

Box containing the Ultra Hammer, but it's weaker than the Lazy Shell, so it's best not to equip it. You have to jump across some more screw bridges to reach a Trampoline, which bounces you down to a platform with a giant clock. This clock turns out to be a boss, named Count Down, and like with Exor and his eyes and mouth, the two bells on top of the clock are their own entities, called Ding-A-Lings.

Count Down itself has 2400 HP, 80 on both types of Defense, and 120 on Magic Attack, and it uses various types of spells. Whatever attacks it uses depends on the time on the clock-face and the announcement it makes. "It's 1:00. Time to play," Ice Rock or Crystal; "It's 3:00. Time to RECOVER!", Recover; "It's 5:00. Time for a break, huh?", Aurora Flash; "It's 6:00. Time to FULLY RECOVER," Mega Recover; "It's 7:00. "DINNER TIME," Water Blast; "It's 10:00. Time to garden," Petal Blast; and, "It's 12:00. It's high noon," Corona. It doesn't stick to any 

set order, and will skip ahead various hours if the Ding-A-Lings announce, "Time is marching on!" Also, if Count Down says, "It's 9:00. Guess I'll break," then it won't do anything. It has no means of attacking you any way aside from its magic spells, and it's weak against jump and thunder attacks. As for the Ding-A-Lings, they each have 1200 HP, 180 Attack and 120 Defense, and mostly make use of special attacks. Like Count Down, there's a pattern to which moves they use at a given time, indicated by stars that appear in front of the bell that's about to 

attack: a circle of stars means a random physical attack, a flashing star means Dark Star, a triangle indicates one of three status-affecting moves (S'Crow, Spore Chimes, and Doom Reverb), and a flashing circle means Fear Roulette, which is an instant death attack targeting one random party member. The Ding-A-Lings' Magic Attack and Defense are pretty low, at 20 and 50, and they're both weak against thunder. Because of Count Down's powerful spells, especially its Recover abilities, it's best to take it out first, using 

a combination of Ultra Jump and regular attacks (you don't get any Coins if Count Down is defeated first, but that's not really a priority at this point). You'll know it's been defeated when text comes up that says, "The watch is broken!", and the clock hands start spinning wildly. With that, you can concentrate on taking out the Ding-A-Lings as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Once that's done, you can save your progress using a Save Block that popped up on the platform's left end, and then use a Trampoline to move on. In this next part of the Gate, the gimmick becomes sections of conveyor belts you have to run along and "Machine-Made" enemy duplicates, mostly of past bosses. The first ones you see are a series of Axem Rangers running along a pair of belts, the second of which has a Treasure Box with another Mushroom. Beyond them, you have to use a pair of platforms to get over to the next section. These platforms slowly move in 

separate directions and give you a chance to cross from one to the other when they meet in the middle and then briefly circle each other. On the other side is another conveyor belt that's deploying Machine-Made Axem Rangers, and it can be tough to get around it and avoid them without falling. If you fall off here, you land in a spot where, over to the right, you find two Treasure Boxes with a Flower Tab and a Mushroom. After you get past the conveyor belt up there and avoid the Ameboids behind it, the next spot has belts with Machine Made Drill Bits, Shysters, 

and Macks. There are also Aeros coming down that can momentarily stop you in your tracks, possibly causing you to get pulled into a battle (if you have to fight one of the Mack duplicates, you fight a group of Shysters as well, just like the real battle at the beginning of the game; they also have the audacity to play Battling A Weapon Boss in every fight with these fake bosses). The next section has a line of conveyor belts you have to use to cross a gap, making it really easy to fall off, and they lead to a narrow, winding path traversed by Li'l Boos. At the end of 

this path, there's a Treasure Box to the right containing a Royal Syrup, while over to the left, you have to go across another conveyor belt, jump on another of those platforms, and ride it over to another belt to continue on. Up ahead are more Li'l Boos, a box with a Max Mushroom, and another conveyor belt leading to another winding, narrow path with yet more Boos. The next section has a little stairway of conveyor belts, which you have to jump up while avoiding Machine-Made Bowyers. Beyond that is 

another narrow, zig-zagging path, with Axem Ranger duplicates that you have to get around. And after that? Another staircase of conveyor belts and more Machine-Made Bowyers, of course. There's a much needed Save Block past that, and then, you come to a spot where Ninjas are circling around a raised block where Machine-Made Yaridoviches are landing. Up in the corner from this block are the game's final Treasure Boxes, with a Mushroom and a Flower Tab. In any case, you have to fight one of the 

Yaridoviches to move on (during the battle, instead of duplicating itself like the real one, it splits up into four Drill Bits at various points, and you have to destroy all of them before you can get another shot at the duplicate). When you defeat it, the block explodes and you can drop down through the hole there, landing at the bottom with a loud crash.

This leads into another boss battle, with two guys named Domino and Cloaker. The latter has 1200 HP and some serious regular Attack and Defense stats, at 170 and 130, though his only special attack is Boulder Toss, and his Magic stats are very weak, at just 12 on Attack and 20 Defense. Domino, however, splits the difference in that, while he has less HP, at 900, and weak regular Attack and Defense, 65 and 80, his Magic Attack and Defense are considerable, at 120 and 150. He uses the Endobubble special attack, and the magic spells of Flame Stone, Lightning Orb, and

Blizzard. Moreover, when you defeat one of them, the other runs and hops atop a giant, mechanical cobra to continue the fight. Cloaker goes to Earth Link, while Domino goes to Mad Adder (he steals the Thing's catchphrase, "It's clobbering time!", before linking up with it), and, like the guys themselves, the snakes have their own stats. Earth Link is the tougher one, with 2500 HP, 220 Attack and 120 Defense, and he attacks with the serious special moves of Poison and Carni-Kiss. Also, while riding him, Cloaker himself uses Knife Toss. However, Earth Link has pathetic 

Magic stats, with just 5 on Attack and 10 on Defense. As for Mad Adder, he has less HP at 1500, and also less on regular Attack and Defense, at 150 and 70, but, while he doesn't have as much Magic Attack as Domino, at 90, he does have more on Defense, at 180. He uses the attacks Storm, Sand Storm, Boulder, and Water Blast, while Domino uses various others: Diamond Saw, Ice Rock, Solidify, Blizzard, Light Beam, and Bolt. As the Player's Guide suggests, because Domino's spells are more hard-hitting,

especially when he's on Mad Adder, it's best to focus on him initially. Once he's been defeated and Cloaker runs to Earth Link, you should focus entirely on the latter, as Cloaker will vanish once he's been defeated (the same also goes for Domino and Mad Adder). Once the fight is over, you find yourself standing by a Trampoline, and the path behind it leads into the actual factory.

There are several mini-bosses you have to get through in order to finally reach Smithy ("mini-bosses" is being generous, as you don't even get boss music while fighting three of them). The first is with the factory Clerk, who, after Mallow tells him off, initially sics three Mad Mallets on you, but you can easily stomp them. The Clerk himself then attacks, and while he has 500 HP, his only special attack is Bomb Toss; otherwise, he just uses Valor Up and Vigor Up to increase his chances. He's accompanied in battle by two more Mad Mallets but, really, this 

fight is a cinch. Afterward, there's a cutscene where Mallow messes around with a Switch, activating a crane that grabs and lifts him up. With Mario's help, he's able to get down, and sheepishly rejoins the group. Then, suddenly, Toad shows up, offering to help out (how he got here is anyone's guess). After being stunned to see that Princess Toadstool is with you, he opts to act as an impromptu Item Shop, offering Mid and Max Mushrooms, Maple Syrup, Pick Me Ups, Able Juice, Freshen Up, and Froggie Drink before the final battle (and yet, he still charges, 

despite knowing the world is at stake; that said, he does also give you a Rock Candy for free). In the next room, you come across the Manager, who's talking with some Pounders about the progress of things. However, Bowser decides to tell them what's what, claiming he's the one who rules the world, before heading into the next battle (much to Boswer's annoyance, the Manager focuses on Mario during that initial confrontation, acting like he isn't even there). The Manager has 800 HP, adds in Spritz Bomb along 

with Bomb Toss, and is accompanied by three Pounders, but, again, these guys are easy pickings, especially at this point. Once that's done, Bowser gets all philosophical and delivers a haiku, before you move on. The next room has you confront the Director, whom Princess Toadstool decides to admonish for all the trouble the Smithy Gang have been causing. But when he says that any dissent against Smithy will result in "meltdown," she runs behind Mario. The Director has 1000 HP, but attack-

wise, he just combines both the Clerk and Manager's sets of special attacks, and is accompanied by four Poundettes. While definitely tougher than the past two, he really isn't that much harder to take down. Once that's done, the princess admits she was scared, but insists they can't turn back now. And then, you find the game's final Save Block, which you'd best use immediately.

Now, you have to face the Factory Chief and a molten metal-toting tank monstrosity called Gunyolk. Since we get actually boss music this time, you know this one is no joke. The Factory Chief has 1000 HP and some serious Attck and Defense stats, at 200 and 120, and he attacks with Shuriken Toss, Thornet, and Funguspike, but his Magic Attack and Defense are kind of weak, at 70 and 90. Gunyolk, however, is the real menace, with 1500 HP, 200 Attack and 130 Defense, and while its Magic Defense is a bit weak, at 80, its Magic Attack is 120. Every second turn, it fires

the Breaker Beam that Blade previously used, only in this case, it doesn't need time to recharge, and every odd turn, it uses one of four attacks: its regular one, Echofinder, Fire Saber (the most likely one), and Electroshock. It's weak against ice and thunder attacks, and it's also a good idea to use Princess Toadstool's Mute ability to try to minimize the damage it can cause. You can throw regular attacks at the Chief, while continuing to Mute Gunyolk as necessary, and once the Chief has been defeated, you

can focus on taking Gunyolk down. After you've won, Geno notes how the production line is still going, and that they need to defeat Smithy to shut it down. It's a good idea to go back and save one last time, as well as grab what other Items you need from Toad, because jumping on the Switch there takes you to Smithy. A crane arm comes in, Mario jumps up to it, and then hops off and jumps down a pipe that's expelling some Drill Bits. When he reaches the bottom, you finally come face-to-face with Smithy, 

who's literally hammering out more minions, and also has the final Star Piece on his chest-plate. All of the characters come out one at a time to vent their anger at him, although the princess just begs that he not put them through any more grief. Smithy, of course, isn't willing to go quietly or peacefully, and so, Mario and the gang jump at him, beginning the final battle.

There are two phases to this battle. The first one, where Smithy looks, to quote the Player's Guide, "like a diabolical Santa Claus," is fairly straightforward. He has 2000 HP, 230 Attack and 130 Defense, and 100 on both Magic Stats, no weaknesses, and attacks with the spells Mega Drain, Sledge, and Meteor Swarm. On top of that, the "Smelter" over to the left continually provides him with the molten metal necessary to create Shypers, a very powerful version of the Shysters. These guys are serious business in their own right, as they each have 400 HP, 170 

Attack, and use a very powerful magic spell called Sword Rain, which can do major damage to the entire party. Thus, while it's not required, it's a very good idea to take out Smelter, which itself has 1500 HP but is weak against thunder, as soon as possible (the only indication that it's been taken out is when you can no longer select it to attack). Also, needless to say, if you have any Rocky Candy, as well as powerful multi-target moves and weapons, now is the time to use them. And while her actual attacks won't do much good, the princess is vital to have here because of her

healing abilities. When you deplete all of Smithy's HP, he flies into a rage and starts slamming down his sledgehammer. An Aero shows up to try to calm him down, as does a Drill Bit, while a Shyster warns him that the foundation in this room is very weak, as it's only just been put in. However, Smithy only finds this irritating and slams his sledgehammer down once more. This causes the room to violently shake and the floor gives way. Both Smithy and Mario's party fall down into a hellish, red-colored void, with lots of 

monstrous gears and faces in the background. Utterly enraged, Smithy decides to stop playing around and drops his disguise, leading into the battle's second phase. Here, he shape-shifts continually, with his head taking on various forms, each with their own stats and attack strategies (the only constant is his maximum HP, which has jumped to 8000).

You only fight Smithy's true form for a few turns at the start, before he begins changing. His Tank Head guise has weak Magic Attack and Defense, at just 10 and 50, but his regular stats are a serious 250 on Attack and 130 on Defense, and he uses the fatal attack called Magnum. This form is vulnerable against thunder. Magic Head, by contrast, has much less on the regular front (135 on Attack and 50 on Defense), but his Magic Attack is 130 and Magic Defense is 150, and he has no weak points. His spells here all pack a whallop: Boulder, Dark Star, Meteor 

Swarm, Sword Rain, Arrow Rain, and Spear Rain. Treasure Head has 150 Attack and 120 Defense, but fairly low Magic stats, at 78 on Attack and 80 on Defense. All of his attacks in this form affect your status; in fact, the only status effect he doesn't induce is Sleep. He's vulnerable to fire attacks here. And finally, Mask Head has the lowest regular Attack, at just 40, and his Magic Attack is only slightly better at 70, but both of his Defenses are quite strong, at 150 on regular and 100 on Magic. In addition to Recover and Mega Recover, he uses Shredder, which, to 

reiterate, eliminates all status boosts and decreases the effectiveness of any accessories you're wearing. Smithy's body is also its own target, with 1000 HP in and of itself, and while the head should be the main focus, depleting the body's HP causes it to momentarily freeze, making the fight a bit easier. When Smithy says he's burning with power, though, that means his body has recovered. Otherwise, you just have to keep attacking Smithy accordingly, with 

Mario targeting the head while the others either target the body, use multi-target attacks, or give Mario needed status boosts, and Princess Toadstool keeps healing everybody. After chipping away at him for long enough, Smithy will finally go down. He basically overheats and explodes, and then, as everyone else watches, Mario collects the yellow seventh Star Piece. 

Geno then declares that the Star Road has been restored and his job is done, as the Star Pieces come down, circle around him, and then head back up into the sky one by one. He himself leaves the body of Gaz's doll and heads back up into the sky with them, much to the sadness of everyone else (including even Bowser!). The ending gives you a nice montage showing how everything is slowly but surely getting back to normal: Exor disintegrates and the sky lights up, as everyone watches from Vista Hill; Mallow reclaims his title as the prince of Nimbus Land; 

Bowser and his troops get to work repairing the damage that Smithy did to his castle; Jonathan Jones watches the sunset (absolutely gorgeous shot, by the way), possibly aware of your victory; Croco is on Yo'ster Isle, trying to swindle the Yoshis in the races; Toadofsky conducts an orchestra, as Frogfucius and his student watch; Booster and Valentina get married at Marrymore, in a church full of Snifits as witnesses, and with Dodo officiating (Booster then runs out, and Valentina gives chase, as do the Snifits; Dodo, meanwhile, just stands there, looking confused); and 

there's a final "THANK YOU" screen with Mario, Princess Toadstool, Toad, the Chancellor, and Yoshi. The credits then play over a parade, which is being led by Luigi, and features the characters riding various types of floats and doing lots of silly things (I'll leave those specifics for you to discover). The scene eventually transitions from day to night, with lit up floats, and ends on Mushroom Castle, with Mario and Princess Toadstool standing atop a glowing Star float. And, right to the end, what you see depends on 

something you did previously in the game: some fireworks go off in the sky, and the shape they take depends on how many you bought from the guy selling them in Moleville. If you bought none, one, or two, it's a Mushroom; three or four get a Flower; and five get a Star. Finally, you get "THE END," as a rendition of the classic Super Mario Bros. theme plays (and which you can't get off of, no matter what button you press, which I've never really liked).

So, yeah, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is just a bona fide classic, both of the Super NES era and for all times. I may have some nitpicks here and there, like the character designs, the game's isometric angle and the issues it sometimes causes, the control layout in some parts, and some of the individual challenges not being my thing but, overall, this is a very rich and rewarding game to play. The various worlds and stages are well-designed and interesting to explore, the game's randomized nature makes for considerable replay value, the characters' personalities are able to come through even though all of the dialogue and interactions are done through text, the game has a really fun and witty sense of humor about it, the inclusion of optional mini-games, boss battles, and stages makes the world feel bigger and more alive, the music score is awesome all around, and it's one game where, when you finish it, you really feel as though you've been on a truly epic adventure and defeated a massive threat. It may have originally taken a while for me to get into, due to how foreign its gameplay was to my personal sensibilities at the time, but I'm really glad I did, as it really is one of my favorites of all time, especially on the Super NES.